Hundreds of reptiles perish in garden centre blaze

Fire crews from Tadley, Overton, Basingstoke, Winchester and Rushmoor were alerted to the Cottismore Garden Centre, on Newbury Road, just outside Kingsclere shortly after 3pm, where a fire had broken out inside the wooden-clad aquatic section of the centre.
Staff and visitors to the centre were quickly evacuated and no-one was injured in the incident, however around 150 snakes and lizards as well as hundreds of tropical fish, worth thousands of pounds, perished in the fire.
Station manager at Basingstoke fire Station, Dave Graham said: "It was very challenging for our crews to tackle the fire in a room within a room and they did a great job in containing the flames.
"The owners of the centre also acted very quickly to move gas cylinders away from the fire, which enabled to us to get to work on extinguishing the flames straight away."
The fire, thought to be the result of an electrical fault, was extinguished by 5:10pm.
The wooden aquatic section was almost completely destroyed by the fire, while much of the rest of the centre was damaged by smoke.