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Homeowner tries to stop snake infestation — and burns down Maryland home, officials say

A Maryland homeowner burned down their home in Poolesville after trying to use smoke to manage a snake infestation, causing $1M in damages, an official said.
A Maryland homeowner burned down their home in Poolesville after trying to use smoke to manage a snake infestation, causing $1M in damages, an official said. Pete Piringer on Twitter

If you find your home infested with snakes, you might need some assistance instead of trying to tackle the reptile problem yourself.

For one homeowner in Maryland, when they tried stopping a snake infestation, they burnt their home to the ground.

The accidental destruction ensued after the homeowner attempted to manage the infestation by smoking the slithering creatures out in Poolesville, Maryland, a Montgomery County Fire and Rescue official said.

It resulted in $1 million in damages.

Flames are seen engulfing the entire home until it was reduced to nearly all rubble in photos shared by Fire and Rescue spokesman Pete Piringer on Twitter on Dec. 3 in an update on the house fire that occurred Nov. 23.

“Status of snakes undetermined,” Piringer wrote of the cold-blooded creatures that were in the home, adding that no humans were injured in the fire.

It is believed that the heat source, coals, were “too close to combustibles,” he said. The fire originated in the basement.

McClatchy News has reached out to the county’s fire department for further comment.

Earlier in November, a man in Colorado tried to burn away cobwebs in his mother’s home but it didn’t go as expected, McClatchy News previously reported.

The flames ignited out of his control and caused more than $100,000 in damages.

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This story was originally published December 3, 2021 at 10:50 AM.

Julia Marnin
McClatchy DC
Julia Marnin covers courts for McClatchy News, writing about criminal and civil affairs, including cases involving policing, corrections, civil liberties, fraud, and abuses of power. As a reporter on McClatchy’s National Real-Time Team, she’s also covered the COVID-19 pandemic and a variety of other topics since joining in 2021, following a fellowship with Newsweek. Born in Biloxi, Mississippi, she was raised in South Jersey and is now based in New York State.
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