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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

PALM BEACH POST (Florida) 18 September 07 Business not faulted in fire that killed dozens of snakes (Kevin Deutsch)
Delray Beach: As many as 45 snakes were killed when an electrical fire swept through a snake seller's warehouse Sunday, causing thousands of dollars in losses.
The Retic Ranch, which specializes in the sale of large constrictors, had about 90 snakes in a building in the 340 block of Northeast Fourth Street, where an electrical short started a fire that left as many as half of the reptiles dead.
"I have some losses," said Greg Bryant, president of The Retic Ranch. "The rest are safe."
Snakes on the business' Web site range in price from $250 to $1,800.
Bryant has a venomous reptile license and also is properly licensed to exhibit and sell snakes, said Dani Moschella, spokeswoman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The agency sent an investigator to check on the snakes Monday and found no signs of wrongdoing by Bryant.
When Delray Beach Fire-Rescue, responding to a 1:31 a.m. call, forced the door open, firefighters found dozens of boa constrictors and pythons - some on the loose.
Others were in metal, glass and plastic cages that had started melting, Battalion Chief Russ Accardi said.
The boas were about 8 feet long and the pythons 12 to 17 feet, he said.
The biggest snakes weighed about 200 pounds.
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 around his neck.
A message on The Retic Ranch Web site said the business would not comment on the fire because "we refuse to participate in sensationalizing any 'snake story.'"
"We will now press on and move on, doing what we love," the message said.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/south/epaper/2007/09/18/s3b_dbsnakes_0918.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=75

I feel for Greg's losses big time! More power to you on the quote! Good luck, I'll be in contact!

John