PALM BEACH POST (Florida) 16 September 07 Delray firefighters have to deal with snakes, blaze (Gretel Sarmiento)
Delray Beach: The hissing coming from the smoky warehouse Sunday morning wasn't from fire. When Delray Beach firefighters, responding to a 1:31 a.m. call, forced the door open, they found more than 100 boa constrictors and pythons -- some on the loose. Others were in metal, glass and plastic cases that had started melting when firefighters arrived at the warehouse on 340 Northeast Fourth Street, said Battalion Chief Russ Accardi.
The boas were about 8 feet long and the pythons, 12 to 7 feet, he said. The big ones weighed around 200 pounds. Some, the smaller ones, were dead when firefighters arrived.
Nobody was injured, but one of the firefighters came across a large snake, grabbed it to get it out of the way and wound up wearing it. "When he came out, he had this boa all wrapped around his neck," Accardi said.
Using shipment information on one box inside the warehouse, authorities were able to notify Craig Bryant, 33, owner of the snakes and renter of the warehouse unit. The reptiles were being bred for sale to retailers, he told authorities. Calls to Bryant were not returned Sunday. Authorities were not able to reach the building owner, Carole Properties and Management, Inc..
Accardi said it took firefighters 30 minutes to put out the fire. The origin of the fire did not appear to be suspicious, he said. It might have been caused by wires in the back of the property, he said.
The nature of the incident caught everyone by surprise, he said. "It just looked like a normal warehouse. It just points out, firefighters never know what they are crawling into."
Delray firefighters have to deal with snakes, blaze

[ Show Entire Thread ]