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FIRST COAST NEWS (Jacksonville, Florida) 08 October 05 Snake Bite Kills First Coast Fire Marshal (Tiani Jones)
Palatka, Florida: His life was all about helping others. So when a First Coast fire marshal saw a rattlesnake in a neighbor's yard, he didn't hesitate to jump right in.
But that ultimately led to Joe Guidry's death. Guidry was bitten outside his home in Palatka.
"You live in Florida, you live in the country, you're going to have snakes," says Teresa Kowalczwk.
Call them a nuisance, call them a risk - Snakes are normal in rural Putnam County neighborhoods, but usually not that big of a deal.
Kowalczwk has lived in the area for 40 years. She's seen snakes. However, last week, she saw a snake like no other.
"It was a big snake."
"It was 5-feet, and it had 11 rattlers and a button."
She says it was a diamondback rattlesnake, one of the most deadly snakes.
Kowalczwk was home alone and knew her neighbor would be just the one to help her scare the snake out of her yard.
"He liked stuff like that, that was in his nature, he liked the wild life."
She says her neighbor, Joe Guidry, grabbed his gun, headed towards the snake, and shot it.
But the snake didn't die. It slithered across the street, so Kowalczwk says Guidry put another bullet in it.
This time, she says, he thought the snake was dead and reached to pick it up.
"One bite, one fang, and it hit him dead on the vein," she says.
One bite on the hand is all it took.
Putnam County's Fire Chief, Doug Stewart, says Guidry, an 11-year-veteran of the fire department, fought for his life for almost a week before finally dying Friday afternoon.
It was a shock to doctors, co-workers, and even those like Kowalczwk who see snakes on a regular basis.
She says, "No one would have ever of thought that it would ever come to this."
Snake Bite Kills First Coast Fire Marshal

N/m

Crap,

I thought the rule was "If you think a snake is dead, pick it up"

Jim

Oh yea,

That is just my inexperience with pulling out a gun and shooting a snake showing. I really wish I was there for that show.

Jim