http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8N6B5D04.htm
Fire kills 1,000 reptiles at pet company
MADRID, Spain
As many as 1,000 snakes, turtles and lizards died Friday in a fire at a warehouse owned by a company that imports exotic animals, Spanish authorities said.
The blaze swept through the building in Humanes, a town 20 miles south of Madrid, police in Humanes said.
The warehouse is owned by a company called Zoborneo SL, Spain's largest importer of exotic animals. Many of the creatures killed came from Asia, a Humanes police official said under rules that barred his name from published.
The warehouse also held a small number of tarantulas, chameleons and rodents.
Firefighters managed to rescue about 50 animals, mainly turtles and lizards.
But most of the animals inside the warehouse died, mainly of smoke inhalation rather than the fire itself, said Luis Serrano, a spokesman for the Madrid emergency rescue service.
Some of the turtles in the building were giant species weighing up to 220 pounds, Serrano said.