An 8-foot python escaped its enclosure inside a Virginia middle school, knocked over a heat lamp, and started a fire that damaged eight classrooms, just days before students were set to return for the new school year.
Firefighters from the Forest Fire Department responded to a fire alarm at Forest Middle School in Forest, Virginia, at 12:31 a.m. Thursday and found the building's sprinkler system already activated. When crews entered the affected classroom, they got an unexpected welcome: an 8-foot python, loose and waiting for them.
The Bedford County Fire Marshal's Office investigated and determined the snake had escaped its enclosure, knocked over a heat lamp, and ignited the blaze. The sprinkler system put out the fire before crews arrived, but the combination of fire and water damage left eight classrooms temporarily unusable, UPI reported.
No one was injured. The snake's owner has not been publicly identified.
The Forest Fire Department described the encounter on its Facebook page, noting that crews entering the classroom "were greeted by an 8-foot python."
"Crews safely secured the python into a temporary holding area until the owner arrived and secured [it] back in its original location."
The department did not say whether the python was a classroom pet, part of a school program, or a privately kept animal housed on school grounds. The fire marshal's office has not released a dollar estimate for the damage.
Bedford County Public Schools announced that the eight damaged classrooms would be temporarily closed for repairs but that the disruption would not push back the start of the school year, scheduled for August 19, less than a week after the fire. The district said it would find alternative classroom space within the building.
That leaves administrators scrambling to relocate students and teachers out of fire- and water-damaged rooms before the first bell rings. Which classrooms and grade levels are affected has not been disclosed.
The Forest Middle School incident is an unusual case of a captive python causing property damage, but the broader challenge of managing large snakes, especially when owners fail to contain them, is well documented. In Florida, invasive Burmese pythons have become an ecological crisis. The state runs an annual Python Challenge in the Everglades, a 10-day competitive hunt offering $30,000 in prizes to incentivize removal. More than 11,000 pythons have been removed by state contractors since 2017, AP News reported.
This year's Florida competition drew over 900 participants from across the United States and Canada and yielded a record 294 captured pythons. Taylor Stanberry won the $10,000 grand prize by catching 60 snakes in 10 days, the first woman to take first place since the event began in 2013, Fox News reported.
Florida officials have urged pet owners not to release pythons into the wild. "Don't let it loose, that can be really detrimental to our environment," said Sarah Funck of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
In Bedford County, the python apparently never left the school building. But an unsecured enclosure and a heat lamp were enough to shut down eight classrooms and send firefighters into a room with a snake longer than most of them are tall.
When a loose python can close classrooms days before school starts, somebody owes parents a better explanation than silence about who kept the snake and why it wasn't secure.
