It’s a tragedy felt by dog lovers everywhere.
A fire broke out in a Miami strip mall Wednesday night, and 30 English and French bulldog puppies died, the Miami Herald reports. The fire, reportedly caused by an overloaded electrical outlet, started at 10 p.m. in the back of a bead shop. The flames spread to adjacent stores, and smoke poured into the pet store Beverly Hills Puppies, where the bulldogs were trapped in their cages. Firefighters struggled to open the shop’s tightly-locked door, but by the time they made it inside, the puppies had died of smoke inhalation.
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The pet store suffered a great financial loss. There was no insurance on the store, and each dog was worth $2,000, store owner Martin Leon told the Miami Herald. But really, the loss was too great to put a price tag on.
Because there was no serious structural damage, the store is expected to reopen in a couple of weeks — but it won’t be the same. As Miami Fire-Rescue Lieutenant Ignatius Carroll put it, “People can replace or fix other items, but he can’t replace those puppies.”