Five Sisters Zoo rises from the ashes

It was a blaze that devastated lives and left scores of cherished animals dead.

A year has passed since the Five Sisters Zoo in West Lothian was ravaged by fire, but memories of that terrible night remain painful and vivid.

For owners Brian and Shirley Curran, the impact was immense. The zoo they’d started from scratch lay in ruins and, amidst the choking, acrid smoke, many animals they had personally taken in had perished.

“It was so bad we could hardly see how we could go on,” says Brian, 55.

But a year on, the zoo that has delighted countless families has risen from the ashes. Bigger and better and with some remarkable tales of animal survival.

And it’s those ordinary people who have derived such joy from the zoo that have been key, raising over £100,000 to help rebuild it.

Now, on the first anniversary of the fire, The Sunday Post has been given an exclusive peek behind the scenes of its remarkable reincarnation.

Five Sisters was the zoo that was never intended to be. Animal lovers Brian and Shirley initially ran a garden centre there that had a few rabbits. It took in unwanted strays, with the numbers and species expanding fast.

By 2005, the operation had become so big that the garden centre closed and the zoo opened. It grew in scale and popularity until Sunday, April 14 last year.

“It was a wild night, really stormy, so I didn’t hear the alarm at first,” recalls Brian. “Our house is right in the middle of the zoo and the first thing I thought was that a tree had fallen on the bear fence and triggered the alarm.

“But when I got outside the sky was red above the reptile house. It was completely ablaze.

“The meerkat enclosure was next to it and I tried to get in, but the flames beat me back.

“Then two diesel tanks went up in a giant fireball and one by one I saw the enclosures burning down. I thought the whole zoo was going to go and our house with it.”

The fire brigade was quickly on the scene, 11 engines and specialist appliances battling flames whipped up by the winds. Their efforts saved much of the zoo, but 48 different species perished.

Among them were many treasured reptiles, snakes and tortoises, as well as 11 meerkats and an otter. Two crocodiles were pulled by their tails from beneath the wreckage, surviving against the odds in what remained of their pool.

Head keeper Lynne McKechnie has been with the zoo for seven years and knew each and every animal that didn’t make it. She’d locked up at teatime the previous evening, expecting to come in and start another busy Sunday.

“I had to write the list that day of all the animals that had died. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,” confides Lynne, who is clearly still affected. You can’t help having your favourites.”

The devastation for Lynne was such that, having got through the dreadful day dealing with vets and seeing much-loved animals put down, she collapsed, overcome by stress and grief.

Shirley and Brian, too, were utterly devastated. At one point, Shirley, 51, simply sat in the car park, head in hands, crying. A full investigation ruled out the blaze having been started deliberately, but the cause was never established.

“I just felt so helpless,” Shirley reveals now, her words barely audible. “We were responsible for these animals and we felt we’d let them down, even if there was nothing we could have done about it.”

While there was a constant buzz of human activity, from fire crews and police to medics and helpers, there was, bizarrely, an eerie silence from the animals. It was as if they knew something awful had happened.

But from the very beginning it was plain that more than a ray of hope was shining somewhere amidst the smoky ruins. Shocked locals, many in tears, who turned up to see what had happened, pressed money into the hands of staff. By the end of that Sunday, hundreds of pounds were stuffed in pockets and bags. And that was only the start.

A campaign previously set up on Facebook to help support three circus bears the zoo had rescued became a fire fund. Within two days, £20,000 had been donated from all over the country.

“It was totally spontaneous people just wanted to help,” says Lesley Coupar, who’s been at the zoo for three years. “Every few minutes another donation would come in it was overwhelming.”

Schoolkids, shocked at the pictures they’d seen on TV, had teachers mobilised. Bake sales and dressing-up days by the score were organised as young and old helped.

The current total stands at £105,000 and it’s that which has helped the zoo be built and re-stocked once more.

Rather than build a new reptile house on the old site, finishing touches are being put to a massive open area for the meerkats, tortoises and porcupines.

Brian also shows us their new indoor accommodation and one new enclosure after another. A new aviary has been created for cranes and Sacred Ibis and there’s also a wallaby walkabout area.

Those lost haven’t been forgotten, with the creation of a permanent memorial garden with a picture of each.

But while much that is new is man-made, there are natural wonders.

Only three meerkats survived, one of which was safely elsewhere. The other two Annie and Phoenix suffered burns as they fled. Their recovery was confirmed, though, when they had babies Poppy and Alex in November.

And there’s hope there may be even better news to come with the patter of tiny paws from the surviving female otter.

“There were times when we just wanted to give up,” adds Shirley. “But we’ve taken so much strength from people who have made it plain just what this place means to them.

“They told us it just couldn’t close, couldn’t be lost. And it’s like we have this new chance to start over.”