CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) – Declan Gelzinis and his family go to the Richmond Metro Zoo in Chesterfield County every Christmas season – and they were sad to hear a large fire destroyed the zoo’s workshop, animal hospital and zookeeper service building this summer.
“It’s kind of like a home, like a beach house, like a second home. Like, we go here just like every year. And every time it’s like, more special,” said Gelzinis. “The zoo, it’s happy.”
At around 10 p.m. on Sunday, June 4, Chesterfield County Fire and EMS crews responded to the Metro Richmond Zoo and found several buildings on fire. One animal, a meercat receiving care in the zoo’s animal hospital, died in the blaze.
The zoo’s communication manager, Taylor Andelin, said that, ever since the fire happened, the rebuilding process is running smoothly. Just under two weeks ago, the zoo reopened the new zookeeper service building that’s twice as large as the one before.
“This is a big milestone. Before or since the fire in June, the zookeepers have just been temporarily in this other building, working out of these temporary spaces. So they’re very excited to be in a more permanent space,” said Andelin.
The new building has added features such as additional counter space for animal meal prep – a food storage room, a restroom and a break room with lockers.
“I think the zookeeper room reopening definitely lifted the morale of the staff. They’re super excited to move in. The day we announced that they could move in, they were like running over to go clean their locker and start decorating it,” said Andelin.
The workshop and zoo hospital are still under construction, both are expected to be complete by the spring. While crews rebuild the hospital, the vets are taking care of animals in the mobile clinic by the zookeeper service building.
Jim Andelin, the zoo’s director, said the new buildings are better equipped to handle the needs of the park and he’s excited to give the community and staff the top-notch facility that they deserve.
“It’s pretty exciting right now, because we’ve expanded our keeper areas, our feed room and our vet hospital. And so, the end product is going to, you know, give us a better facility than we had before,” said Andelin. “The community outpouring has been tremendous, a lot of support. And we really appreciate that. And, you know, we couldn’t have done it without the community support.”
