Virginia teacher and firefighters feud over whether a python started schoolhouse fire

Authorities blamed Nanner for knocking over a heat fixture, but Brittany Jacobs contends it was trying to escape blaze The snake didn’t start the fire. So says a Virginia science teacher who owns a python that was found outside its enclosure in a middle school classroom that caught fire recently. Authorities, meanwhile, have publicly blamed the fire on the snake, named Nanner, alleging the python knocked over a heat fixture in her owner’s classroom, igniting a blaze that caused damage at Bedford county’s Forest middle school and killed a tortoise there. But Nanner’s caretaker has vociferously come to her defense, with the educator arguing the python only got out trying to desperately escape a blaze that was not of the creature’s making. The unusual controversy erupted after Forest middle’s fire alarm and sprinkler system was triggered at about 12.30am on 13 August.

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