"She just didn't like snakes, I guess, " Liberty-Eylau Fire Chief David Wesslehoft told CNN on Friday, in something of an understatment.

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She said a "substantial" number of reptiles - including snakes, lizards, turtles, tortoises - had died, along with meerkats and and an ant colony.

BBC: Five Sisters Zoo fire: Animals dead in blaze

She uses dozens of beasts from the mythological canon and establishes new myths with matter-of-fact ease. (The idea of a Parselmouth a person who can speak to snakes seems ancient and fully formed.) She uses plot devices that could each fuel countless romantic comedies: a truth serum, transfiguration, time travel, invisibility, immortality, alchemy.

NEWYORKER: Mugglemarch