It’s bad enough America is constantly killing beavers, but yesterday the national zoo tried to blow some up! I got a stream of headlines and reports on this incident whose cause remains a mystery.
National Zoo looking into chlorine ‘boom’ near beavers and otters
The National Zoo and fire officials are looking into an apparent chlorine accident along the outdoor American Trail exhibit Thursday morning that created a “loud boom,” but caused no fire.
“There was an incident related to chlorine on American Trail, near the otters and beavers,” said zoo spokeswoman Devin Murphy. “There was a loud boom. No fire. No smoke.”
“No humans were hurt,” she said. “No animals were hurt. We cleared the area and D.C. fire is on scene and they’re investigating.”
Another spokeswoman, Pamela Baker-Masson, said the incident happened at 10:55 a.m. inside a small building that houses machinery that supports the beaver and otter exhibits. Chlorine is used in the water filtration system for the exhibits, she said.
A contract employee was inside the building. He smelled chlorine, and left. Then there was the boom. The fire department was summoned. Baker-Masson said she did not know what work the contractor the contractor was doing in the building.
Did you follow all that? The contractor was the only one exposed to the chlorine leak so we’re not responsible for his medical care. No one was hurt. And everything’s fine. FINE. Go look at the panda who’s doing something really cute and don’t worry about all the firemen. As soon as they give us the all clear we’ll go check on the otter and beaver and count how many are left.
See everything turned out fine! And zoo’s are good! We’ll be questioning witnesses to find the cause of this temporary inconvenience. I’m sure it wasn’t the otter’s fault. Everyone loves otters. They’re so playful! Beavers on the other hand are responsible for a great many calamaties. Floods, fires and power outages. West Nile Virus. In fact we really can’t trust them at all.
Better go bring in him first, he’s looking shifty.
