This is not something an officer learns at a police academy.
Two Illinois deputes helped a woman rescue her 6-foot red-tailed boa constrictor and tarantula from a mobile home that had caught fire, the Daily Journal of Kankakee reported. Three dogs also survived the fire.
“It’s another day on the road,” Chief Deputy Ken McCabe, of the Kankakee County Sheriff’s Office, told the newspaper. “You just never know. That is the neat thing about this business. You do what it takes to get the job done.”
Deputies Calvin Zirkle and Douglas Hayden responded to the home of Bourbonnais resident Torrie Frahm, who arrived at her mobile home at 2:30 a.m. Thursday and saw smoke coming from her residence, the Daily Journal reported.
“They grabbed the handheld fire extinguisher (from Hayden’s squad car) and started spraying near the aquarium,” Frahm told the newspaper. “My snake jumped right out of the aquarium. I grabbed him and brought him outside to get some air. I was afraid he wasn’t going to make it.”
Deputy Chief Jim Keener, of the Bourbonnais Fire Protection District, said he believed a heat lamp cord snapped near the aquarium, causing the fire. The house sustained some minor damage, the Daily Journal reported.
“The police academy definitely didn’t talk about snakes,” Zirkle told the newspaper. “It was a pretty crazy. It’s interesting to say we helped rescue a snake. It feels good to help someone.”
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