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The weekend electrical fire at The Serpentarium killed some animals and caused extensive smoke damage, forcing the store’s owner to send reptiles home with...
The Serpentarium first posted about the fire to its Facebook page on Sunday, and immediately, there was an outpouring of support from customers across Dallas-Fort Worth, including many offers to foster animals.
On Tuesday morning, the store officially asked for help fostering, and within a few hours had a litany of enthusiastic responses, eventually finding temporary homes for all its animals.“People love this store. The minute everybody heard, if you look on Facebook, there’s hundreds and hundreds of messages,” said Claire Denault, another volunteer. “It’s like a family store here.” Denault took home a boa, a medium-sized snake and a major step up from the gecko she and her son have at home. The store sent her with everything she needed to take care of the snake, like a heat mat, substrate and a structure for the snake to hide in. Her neighbor, who also fostered some animals, has a ball python and a bearded dragon and will help Denault set up a tank for her new snake.Some of the reptiles needed more extensive care. A handful were burnt and others had smoke injuries, like soot clogging their nostrils. Those reptiles, including a ball python and a leopard gecko, went home with Michelle Crow, president and co-founder of North Texas Reptile Rescue.Injured animals will need about a month to recover. Even then, there is still the possibility they won’t make it. Reptiles are often fragile creatures and Crow said they can die from just stress. The burnt animals are now at risk of infection, but Crow, who also serves as the rescue’s critical care specialist, has extensive experience rehabilitating reptiles. Aimee Zissa, North Texas Reptile Rescue’s other co-founder, is taking home seven ball pythons and two juvenile tegus, her favorite reptile. Tegus in particular have more extensive care needs, as the lizards can grow to anywhere between two and five feet long depending on the species. Zissa is already fostering two other tegus for the rescue, and she owns two as well. “I thought it’s not gonna hurt to go ahead and just feed other mouths and they’re adorable. I’ve already met them. They’re so cute,” Zissa said.North Texas Reptile Rescue co-founders Aimee Zissa, left, and Michelle Crow examine a bearded dragon with soot injuries. In addition to rehabilitation, North Texas Reptile Rescue provides a place for pet owners to surrender reptiles they can no longer take care of instead of releasing them into the wild. Released pet reptiles have caused ecological crises in states like Florida and Georgia, making finding homes for displaced reptiles all the more important. Now begins the arduous process of getting The Serpentarium back on its feet. There was no damage to the structure of the building, which The Serpentarium shares with three other businesses. Fire walls kept the fire from spreading, but smoke alone can cause extensive damage. “Fundamentally, there’ll be that black sooty stuff on every surface, and then a profound odor of smoke,” said Gene Senter, the operations chief of the Richardson Fire Department. He noted that several terrariums also shattered from the heat.It will take one to two months to get the store up and running again, owner Robert Coral said. The interior will require a complete redo, which includes everything from putting together the complicated layout of the store to preparing shelters for all of the store’s animals. He’s working with insurance to cover the cost of that.to offset its loss in revenue and provide salaries to the store’s staff. In under 24 hours, the fund received over $1,000 of its $50,000 goal. “Everything’s got to come out of here. There’s gonna be walls when we’re done. And then from scratch, build it all. It’s a lot of work, but I’m just happy most of the animals didn’t perish,” Coral said. “We have a lot of support from our customer base. … I know our fans will come in as soon as we’re back open.”Baby red-footed tortoises were awaiting foster homes. The Serpentarium found temporary homes for all of its displaced reptiles.. Sasha is a business writer for The Dallas Morning News. She has previously worked for the news department at Car and Driver magazine and served as the sports managing editor of The Duke Chronicle. She graduated from Duke in 2023 with a degree in Russian, a certificate in Policy, Journalism and Media Studies, and a minor in political science.
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