Troublemaking pet tortoise sparks New York apartment fire

A troublemaking pet tortoise escaped from his terrarium in a Brooklyn bedroom - and wound up sparking a fast-moving blaze that wiped out a family's apartment and injured a firefighter and three cops. Giovani - a basketball- sized 6-year-old African spurred sulcata tortoise - somehow managed to lumber out of his plastic tank in his 18-year-old owner Mohamed Salem's bedroom in Bay Ridge on Sunday afternoon, fire officials said.

In the process, the rambunctious reptile tipped over his tank, which sent its heat lamp crashing to the floor and ignited a pile of art supplies, including paint thinner and paint, fire officials said. "The flames were shooting out of the top floor," said witness Kevin Caufield, 37.



Three police officers who had been nearby rushed over to look for trapped residents, not knowing no one was home. The cops had to be treated for smoke inhalation, as did one of the more than 60 firefighters who responded to the blaze, which took a half-hour to put out. One firefighter found Giovani in the kitchen and rescued him.

"My wife was screaming, screaming, screaming for this one," said Salem's father, Ibrahim, 55, pointing at his son. "And when the firefighters came out holding the tortoise, they told her they thought she was screaming for the tortoise!" Giovani was unharmed. Sadly, a second reptile, a water-dwelling turtle living in a tank in Mohammed Salem's bedroom, was killed in the blaze, fire officials said.