SULTAN — Firefighters often get asked to rescue cats and dogs from smoke and flames.
At a recent garage fire in Sultan, though, the crews were asked to rescue a different kind of pet.
The kind that measures up to six feet, with a long snout and snapping jaws.
The American alligator, and its companion, a tarantula, were saved and unhurt, Sultan Fire Chief Merlin Halverson said.
The animals were in a part of the garage that hadn’t yet caught fire. The owner gave the crews a quick lesson in alligator wrangling: grab it by the tail.
So they did.
The plan was for the first firefighter who grabbed the alligator to hand it off to a second firefighter, the chief said. That took two tries to avoid being bitten.
“It didn’t work very well the first time because the alligator wasn’t really excited about being held by the tail,” Halverson said.
The rescue happened while other crews fought the flames, he said. Firefighters from Monroe and Gold Bar also came to assist.
The cause of the Nov. 22 fire along Sixth Street remains under investigation.
It started just before 1:30 a.m. in a detached garage modified to include a living area, Halverson said.
Based on a picture provided by the fire district, the alligator appears 3 or 4 years old, said Jennifer Pramuk, curator at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. The species is native to the southeastern U.S., can grow more than 15 feet long and can live more than 50 years. They eat small animals.
It’s not clear whether the Sultan alligator was legally owned. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife wasn’t involved in the case, according to that agency. Sultan city officials didn’t respond to questions from the newspaper.
Pet alligators have been illegal in Washington for about seven years now, according to Snohomish County’s animal control office. Some exceptions exist, including those for zoos and aquariums, and in cases where the owner can document that the alligator was owned in the state before the law was passed.
The woman who lives at the house suffered minor burns, Halverson said. Her grandchild and another adult who was there at the time both escaped without injury.
Electrical wiring and some items stored in the garage sustained damage from smoke and flames, but there was no major structural damage, the chief said.
Halverson’s crews sometimes have to rescue farm animals, but exotic creatures are rare, he said.
“To my knowledge this is the first alligator we’ve come across, and it will hopefully be the last,” he said.
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.
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