The explosive ordnance disposal service (EOD) found a significant amount of heavy fireworks in the house in Hoofddorp where an explosion caused a lot of commotion yesterday. A python measuring approximately 4.5 meters was found dead in the home during the investigation.
Just after eleven at night, Rob Dumont’s phone from the Zwanenburg reptile shelter rang. During an explosion at the Sound in Hoofddorp a few hours earlier, six reptiles, including a cobra, were said to be present in the house. Whether he could secure it. A routine job for Rob, although the fork soon turned out to be slightly different.
Cobra 6
“When I arrived I heard that it was an explosion of homemade fireworks,” Dumont explains. The 34-year-old Hoofddorp resident who was in the house at the time was injured in the explosion and told the police words such as ‘snake’ and ‘cobra6’, a brand of fireworks. “And that’s where the confusion arose.”
Instead of six reptiles in the house, it was ‘just’ one snake, and that was not a cobra. It turned out to be a 4.5 meter python. Dumont already suspected that, because the neighbors were already talking about a snake of approximately this size.
Surrounding homes were evacuated last night and residents were sheltered elsewhere. The area was only cleared since this afternoon and local residents were allowed back into their homes around 3:45 p.m. The explosive material found in the home has been cleared away and will be detonated in a safe place.
Partly charred
Dumont was initially concerned about the snake’s well-being. The cold water in combination with the wind (the back wall has been partly blown out) can make the snake very sick, he said. Still, he was hopeful that the snake would survive the fire and “at most escape with pneumonia.”
The python was not so lucky. He was found dead and partly charred by the EOD. “He probably died immediately in the fire,” a dejected Dumont tells NH. The animal was taken by the police.