‘We thought
she would be dead, toast,’ said the snake's owner, who was saved by
a fireman and is named Chocolate Chip.
No one really wanted to go back inside the burning
Michigan house to rescue a giant snake named Chocolate Chip.
Not the pet’s owner and not the firemen gathered
outside the smoldering Muskegon home.
Firefighter Scott Hemmelsbach finally said he’d do it.
He had some experience in handling snakes.
Inside the two-story house, Hemmelsbach found the
8-pound boa constrictor’s terrarium in the smoky living room.
Its "face was pushed up on the screen and trying to get
out,” the firefighter told the Chronicle..
The fireman removed the screen, came at the snake from
behind, squeezed its neck with one hand and grabbed the rest of
Chocolate Chip with the other.
In high school, as part of wildlife classes, he
routinely handled snakes, Hemmelsbach said. “That didn’t bother me
at all.”
Owner Bridget Brewer, who lived at the house with her
husband, calls the massive serpent her “baby.”
And she’s beyond happy that her 6-year-old snake is
safe and sound.
“I’m elated they saved her. She’s alive. We thought she
would be dead, toast,” Brewer said Monday, according to
the paper
After running to safety from her burning home, Brewer
said she was going to go back for
Chocolate Chip, but thought better of it when she saw
how fast the fire was spreading.
“I knew it was stupid. It was either her or me. I chose
me,” she said.
The cause of the blaze is under investigation.
