Serpents, Lizards & Tarantulas: East Montgomery County firefighters get a slithery surprise during house fire
EAST MONTGOMERY COUNTY - A group of firefighters in East Montgomery County responded to a house fire and got much more than they bargained for.
"As soon as we walked in the living room, there were just cages everywhere, and it's dark enough to where you can't see in the cages; so we're just wondering what's in there," said Captain Kyle Foster with East Montgomery FD.
On Tuesday morning, Foster and his team responded to a structure fire that is nothing out of the ordinary. But what was inside the home caught these first responders by surprise.
"Albino pythons, milk snakes, chicken snakes, alligators. I don't know all the different types of lizards, I just know there were iguanas, bearded dragons, you name it she had it," Foster said.
There were even tarantulas inside some of the tanks. Kyle and his crew quickly narrowed the start of the fire down to a tank that was holding a lizard; he says a heating lamp was likely to blame. A photo shows one of the firefighters giving supplemental oxygen to the lizard that was inside that tank.
"We've done some dogs and cats, I've never done it to a lizard," Foster said.
For many, the thought of walking into a home filled with scaly species and serpents is enough to make your skin crawl, but Foster was the right firefighter for this job.
"I'm a country boy, so snakes don't bother me," he said.
However, he admits that not everyone on his crew was on board with holding the animals or posing for pictures as he did.
"Had it been smokier in there I can guarantee my fireman would've left me in there because he's deathly afraid of snakes, and there's a few that kept their distance," Foster recalled.
The homeowners and all the animals were okay. Still, this is a rescue that Foster and his crew won't soon forget.