Taser Used On Man Trying To Save Pets From Burning Home

Homeowner Uses Garden Hose To Fight Flames In North Belle Vernon

POSTED: 10:22 pm EDT September 6, 2010
UPDATED: 10:57 am EDT September 7, 2010

NORTH BELLE VERNON, Pa. -- Police said they were forced to use a Taser on a man who was trying to rescue his pets from a house fire in Westmoreland County.

Firefighters learned that 11 exotic snakes were inside one of the two homes that caught fire in North Belle Vernon on Monday.

Monica Baker, who is 8 weeks pregnant with triplets, and her two children were able to escape when flames from their next-door neighbor’s home spread to their home on Green Street.

Monica’s husband, Damon Baker, desperately battled the fast-moving flames with his garden hose before firefighters arrived.

“I was outside, at the end of the garden hose, trying to spray down the side of the house to keep it from spreading so rapidly,” said Baker.

Police on scene said they tried three times to get him away from the fire to protect him, but he resisted so they were forced to subdue him with a Taser.

"Had I been able to stay there a few minutes spraying it down before the fire department got here, we might not have lost all of our animals,” said Baker.

The animals, firefighters learned, were 11 Ball Pythons that escaped from their cage and were loose inside the burning home.

“This is the first time we’ve really had to bring snakes out of a structure like that,” said Chief Ken Ramsdell of the North Bell Vernon Fire Department. “Sometimes it’s good to know if people have exotic animals.”

Baker told Channel 4 Action News reporter Keith Jones that only 5 of the snakes survived the fire.

Police said Baker will not be charged with any crime following the Taser incident.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

From: http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/westmoreland/24902879/detail.html