'We've lost our livelihood' – Couple who raised exotic fish look to future after fire - Buffalo News
'We've lost our livelihood' – Couple who raised exotic fish look to future after fire - Buffalo News |
| Posted: 20 Aug 2020 12:00 AM PDT   Greg Barton looks over a room filled with fisk tanks at his home in Kenmore Wednesday, August 19, 2020. Barton lost nearly everything after a fire in a neighbor's home next door last week spread to his home where he had many animals including fish. The cats survived. So did all the pet rats and the snakes. But only about 60 of the tropical fish that Greg Barton and Amy Heubach were breeding for sale to exotic fish enthusiasts made it. On Aug. 14, a ferocious fire that appears to have started at a house on Westgate Road in Kenmore spread next door to Barton and Heubach's home for the past three years. The house, which they rent, was badly damaged by the fire and the water from firefighters' efforts to tamp down the flames.  Greg Barton checks on his pet rats at his home in Kenmore Wednesday, August 19, 2020. Barton lost nearly everything after a fire in a neighbor's home next door last week spread to his home where he had many animals including fish. Neither Barton nor Heubach were home when the fire started that afternoon. Neither was their dog, Loki. When they heard from a friend about the two-alarm blaze, they rushed back home, worried sick about the animals still inside. It wasn't until night that Barton was allowed to go inside. After signing a waiver from his landlord acknowledging he was putting himself at risk by going in, Barton said, he trudged through his wrecked home with a flashlight, searching for his animals. All 11 fish tanks spread throughout the first floor were filled with debris. He could barely see through the murky water. He could tell that some of the fish were still alive, but 80 to 90 prize fish and hundreds of guppies, shrimp and snails were lost. He went to the back of the house where he keeps two cages for pet rats. He thought for sure they'd be dead. "When you look on the outside of the wall that they were against, it's completely cooked," he said. But somehow the rats survived. They were all fine. The snakes, including a yellow banana ball python named Therion, were in a room that wasn't touched by the fire or water. They seemed unperturbed. Barton found one cat, Katie, in the attic. "I had to coax her out," Barton said. The other one, Voodoo, was hiding under a recliner. To try to save as many fish as he could, he drove down to the Target in North Buffalo to buy big plastic totes. "I got a funny look from the cashier and I said, 'Well, my house burnt down and this is what it's for,' " Barton said. "The lady behind me said: 'Oh, that was you?' " Barton laid out the totes in his driveway and filled them with water, treated the water to make it habitable for the fish and then went in. He used a net to scoop out the surviving fish and brought them out. He said he continued the rescue operation for about four hours until he hit the point of exhaustion. In the days since, Barton and Heubach have been living in a motel with their dog and cats. Barton's dad is fostering the fish. The rats and snakes remain in cages at their house on Westgate. They lost just about everything they owned in the fire. Barton had been building a business in selling tropical fish since December. But now, he plans to start over. "We've lost our livelihood," he said. Barton has come to love raising exotic fish. "It was really fun to watch them lay the eggs, watch the eggs start to move and the little tails pop out of them and then wiggle around until they can start swimming," he said. Three days after the fire, he was in the back room when he realized that one of his fish, a Medusa pleco, a black catfish with long tendrils, was alive at the top of a 55-gallon tank. The tank was filled with broken glass and other debris, so Barton couldn't scoop him out. He first took a bookend to try to smash the glass, but the bookend fell apart. He said he then took a sledgehammer to the tank. The water gushed out and Barton picked through the glass to get to the black fish with his hand. He put it into a Tupperware-type container and brought it to his dad's home. Neighbors have been turning out to help Barton and Heubach, as well as the family next door who lost their home. One neighbor started a GoFundMe.com fundraising campaign . Another man who often walks his dog past on Westgate offered money . "This community has been amazing," Barton said. On the second floor of the house, in what used to be Heubach's office, was a decorative wall hanging that read "Dream big and dare to fail." It was the motto of an intrepid explorer, Capt. Norman Vaughan. The wall hanging wasn't damaged at all by the fire, while a painting on another wall just feet away was scorched. "That survived," Barton said.  Greg Barton shines a light on an undamaged wall decoration at his home in Kenmore Wednesday, August 19, 2020. Barton lost nearly everything after a fire in a neighbor's home next door last week spread to his home where he had many animals including fish. Maki Becker 0 comments Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. |
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