Thirteen monkeys die in fire at safari park
THIRTEEN monkeys died after fire destroyed their enclosure at Woburn Safari Park yesterday.
A faulty generator appears to have caused the fire in the patas monkey house within the African Forest drive- through enclosure of the Bedfordshire park. The monkeys perished when a weakened roof collapsed on them.
A spokesman said: “Staff and fire crews attended the scene; however, devastatingly for everyone at the park, none of the 13 animals could be saved.” All the other animals in the jungle en- closure were checked but appeared to be unaffected by the fire.
Fire crews arrived at 2:37am and extinguished the flames about two hours later.
The fire at Woburn Safari Park follows a blaze in the Animal Adventure area at London Zoo last month which spread to a gift shop and petting zoo and resulted in the deaths of an aardvark and four meerkats.