Phoenix firefighters faced an added challenge while battling a house fire last week: Snakes. Lots and lots of snakes.
"It was honestly like a movie. It really hit us that, you know, we were walking around with snakes and lizards and everything else," Fire Capt. Greg Hawk told KPHO-TV about the surprise crews received when they entered the burning building in Laveen on Thursday.
The presence of the hundreds of animals—including reptiles, dogs and cats, as well as the snakes—meant firefighters fought the blaze from inside the house. They also worked to make as many as non-traditional grabs as possible.
"There were literally firefighters that were fighting fire, squirting water on the fire, and guys next to them picking up snakes and putting them in buckets. We just knew that we had to do what we could to protect the animals and get the fire out," Hawk told KPHO.
The surviving reptiles and snakes, which were non-venomous, are now being cared for by the Phoenix Herpetological Sanctuary.
