One of the latest DC Fire and EMS hopefuls wasn’t quite up to sssssnuff.
“Pete the Python,” a multi-foot long snake, was found slithering around the DC Fire Training Academy building on Saturday, the agency said in a statement posted to social media.
“Not meeting recruit standards, he is now with animal control,” the agency statement reads.
Pete, as he was affectionately named by the DC firefighters that found him, is a ball python. The species is native to grassland in Central and Western Africa, not the DC area — but because the snakes are typically docile, they’re often kept as pets.
That’s why the agency believes Pete is a pet that someone set loose.
According to DC Fire and EMS spokesperson Vito Maggiolo, Pete was found by a firefighter during regular weekend training that took place on Saturday. While obviously a rare occurrence, the snake did not present a large disruption to training, Maggiolo said.
