Overview
- Fire crews responded just before 1 a.m. on Thursday to a second-floor blaze at Forest Middle School in Bedford County and found smoke, active fire and water pouring from sprinklers that left eight classrooms water-damaged.
- The Fire Marshal’s Office has issued a preliminary assessment that the 8-foot python named Nanner escaped its enclosure, likely knocked over a heat lamp and thus contributed to starting the fire.
- Life science teacher Brittany Jacobs, who owns Nanner, disputes that timeline and says video and the condition of tanks and fixtures show the snake fled after the fire began.
- Firefighters found Nanner hiding under a desk and secured the snake, a tortoise was reported killed, and Jacobs says she lost 18 years of teaching materials and has removed all classroom animals.
- Investigators have not released a final, public determination and the unresolved dispute over cause could affect local school safety rules, animal-handling protocols and questions of liability.