Woman rescues snakes from burning home

A woman rescued two snakes from a smoke-filled Nevada Street home Tuesday night.

Sonia Boren was upstairs in the home at 1421 N. Nevada St. at about 6:40 p.m. when she smelled something burning.

Boren said she walked downstairs and asked her boyfriend and his friend if they were cooking something. They said no.

"They left and I went into the kitchen and saw smoke coming from the back of the refrigerator," she said. "I opened the door to my boyfriend's mother's bedroom and I saw flames. I closed the door and ran upstairs and got the snakes."

She said she called the fire department from a neighbor's home.

The two snakes, Rosie, a rosie boa, and Houdini, a ball python belonging to Boren's boyfriend, were wrapped around Boren's neck and arm as she stood outside the home.

Boren was staying with her boyfriend and had been living in the home for about two months.

"It was kind of scary," she said. "I've just been staying here and this was one of the only times I was alone in the house."

The home suffered smoke damage from the fire, which started in the back bedroom, according to a fire department spokesman.

Firefighters cut some ventilation holes in the roof of the home. A quick response limited damage to the back bedroom. Most of the personal items inside the rest of the home were safe.

Seven people live in the home, Boren said. Representatives of the American Red Cross were on the scene to offer help.

Fire investigators are seeking a cause for the blaze. Fire engines closed Nevada Street for nearly an hour.