Canberra's National Zoo and Aquarium has reopened one day after an intense fire came within one metre of a tiger enclosure and sent a plume of black smoke pouring into the sky.
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Parts of the zoo were still without power on Monday after the fire, which caused significant damage to sheds and equipment on Sunday and forced zoo staff and patrons to evacuate the grounds.
But while no animals or staff were injured, zoo owner Richard Tindale said they "dodged a bullet" as the shed backed onto a tiger enclosure.
"Our concern was the structural integrity of the tiger enclosure could be affected. We had to get her inside [her den] but if the smoke got into her den we'd have to make a call whether it's safe to let her out again and as it turned out the structural integrity wasn't affected at all," Mr Tindale said.
And while he estimated the damage bill to be a "six-figure sum", Mr Tindale said they were "incredibly lucky".
"It's destroyed a few hundred square metres of building and we had a lot of tools in there but that's small fry compared to if anyone was injured or if the animals had been injured," Mr Tindale said.
"It's unfortunate to have a fire but if we were going to have one it was the right time of the day to have it. If it happened in the middle of the night when no one would have noticed it, heaven knows what would have happened."
While investigators were unable to access the burnt rubble of the shed on Monday, Mr Tindale said they believed the fire had been sparked by an electrical fault.
The shed will have to be demolished and rebuilt, but Mr Tindale said the construction should not affect the flood of school holiday visitors to the zoo or guests at the Jamala Lodge.
Guests booked in at the bungalows and tree houses affected by the power outage were put up in the Hyatt on Sunday night.