SOUTHWEST RANCHES, FLA. (WSVN) - A South Florida ranch owner said he plans to start over from scratch after flames sparked by lightning tore through his barn, killing hundreds of his exotic animals.
Broward Sheriff’s and Davie Fire Rescue crews were hard at work hoping to save over 300 exotic animals inside the barn near Southwest 46th Street and 178th Avenue, in Southwest Ranches, Tuesday afternoon.
The barn, owned by Blake’s Exotic Animal Ranch, housed turtles and fish inside.
“My ranch, Blake’s Exotic Animal Ranch, and everything that I had here, all my tortoises, all my turtles, all my exotic fish, everything died,” said barn owner Blake Kaldirimoglu.
Officials originally reported there were about 100 to 180 animals that lived in the barn that died, but the owner said around 300 perished.
“If you see all the enclosures, all the turtles are in the corner as far as they can because they didn’t want to get burned,” said Kaldirimoglu. “They all went.”
The entire barn could be seen covered in flames before crews were able to get them under control, around 2:30 p.m.
“I went over there as fast as I can to see if I could save anything, but there was nothing to be saved,” said the owner.
Kaldirimoglu said he has been collecting and growing animals from all over the world for years.
“I had probably 200 hatchlings and rare tortoises and turtles all around the world from Madagascar to India to Africa, Italy,” he said, “and then I had all types of fish from all around the world also.”
Kaldirimoglu runs a popular YouTube channel with over 26,000 subscribers, where he would document life at the barn with the animals.
Firefighters believe lightning struck the barn, causing it to ignite.
“They said there’s lightning folds I could put around the yard, put in hundreds of them. [Lightning] can hit those and not me and the animals,” said Kaldirimoglu.
Kaldirimoglu said he and his family were out eating when the fire started. They rushed back to see if there was anything they could do.
“The barn was on fire, so we came here running, but it was too late. The whole thing was gone,” said Yamilia Kaldirimoglu, the owner’s mother.
Her son took out his cellphone and began recording the scene as firefighters battled the blaze.
“All my turtles, all the fish, everything is [expletive] burnt down,” he said.
“My son is very devastated. I’m devastated for him because this was all his money,” said his mother. “He made all this by himself. He’s had these since he was 7 years old. Some of these things are very exotic, and they’re very rare, that he might not get again.”
Fire crews described the structure of the barn.
“The barn is made of all wood – wood roof and wood walls – so with that amount of fire, the structure gets pretty unstable right away with that amount of fire,” said Davie Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Robert DiFerdinando. “We did have a partial collapse of the building.”
No people were injured in this fire.
“No injuries to anybody, no injuries to firefighters, homeowners,” said DiFerdinando.
As he walked through the rubble on Wednesday, Kaldirimoglu said he’s thankful for the animals that survived, and he plans to rebuild his seven-year venture from scratch.
“Hopefully, we are going to pull through and start over and rebuild and take this all down and do better things,” he said.
The family has set up a GoFundMe page. If you would like to help them, click here.
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