An 8-foot python was found loose inside a burning classroom at a Virginia middle school, but whether the snake actually started the fire has become the subject of an unusual dispute.
The blaze broke out at Forest Middle School in Bedford County shortly after midnight on Aug. 13. Firefighters entered the second-floor classroom expecting to battle flames and smoke.
Instead, they also found a large snake moving freely inside.
The python, named Nanner, was eventually secured while crews worked to extinguish the fire.
Fire officials blamed the python
The county’s chief fire marshal, Steven Whipple, told local media that the snake contributed to the fire by knocking over a heat fixture.
The blaze caused fire and water damage to several classrooms and killed a tortoise named Bowser that was kept in the room.
Firefighter-EMT Ryan Owen later recalled arriving at the classroom and being met by two things: smoke and the snake.
The unusual circumstances quickly attracted attention, with reports suggesting that Nanner had escaped her enclosure before the fire spread.
The teacher says the snake was trying to escape
Brittany Jacobs, the life science teacher who kept Nanner and other animals in the classroom, strongly disputed that explanation.
Jacobs said the light fixtures in her classroom had been secured and that the heat fixture near the tortoise enclosure had been clamped in place for years.
She argued that Nanner did not cause the fire.
Instead, she believes the python escaped because the classroom had become dangerously hot.
According to Jacobs, surveillance footage showed the fire was already visible through the classroom door for about 20 minutes before Nanner was seen leaving the room.
Nanner appeared to have been trying to survive
Jacobs said the damage inside the classroom also suggested that the fire had become extremely intense.
She claimed the heat had damaged or melted parts of Nanner’s enclosure and that the python had pushed against its screen hard enough to bend the metal locks.
The teacher also said Nanner had soot marks on her face and a bruised nose after escaping.
To Jacobs, those details suggested the snake had been trapped inside the enclosure when the fire began and had escaped only after conditions became unbearable.
A tortoise did not survive the fire
While Nanner was rescued, another animal in the classroom was not so fortunate.
Bowser, a tortoise kept by Jacobs for educational purposes, died in the blaze.
Jacobs said the loss was particularly painful because she had used animals in her classroom for years to give students hands-on learning opportunities.
She later took Nanner and her other classroom animals home after the fire.
The cause of the fire remains disputed
The fire department’s account and the teacher’s explanation paint very different pictures of what happened.
Officials have said the python knocked over a heat fixture, while Jacobs maintains that Nanner was simply trying to escape a fire that had already started.
The unusual case has therefore left one question at the center of the investigation:
Did the snake cause the fire, or was she simply another victim trying to escape it?
For now, the python has survived the incident, but the mystery surrounding what actually ignited the classroom remains.
Featured Image: Photo by David Clode on Unsplash
Leave a Reply