FIREFIGHTERS found a slippery customer on their hands when they doused a bedroom fire at a Worcestershire cottage and a snake slithered into view.

Shocked Red Watch firefighters Dave Noake and Phil Wall soon got on with the job, and even gave the pet serpent a sniff of oxygen to revive his flagging senses.

The pet had escaped from his glass tank at Elm Cottage, Ockeridge, near Holt Heath, after it was cracked by the heat from the flames.

"This fire may have been started by a discarded cigarette," said fire brigade spokesman Alec Mackie.

"A bedroom was severely damaged, it was more or less gutted. All that was left of the mattress was the springs."

Crews worked for more than two hours and the house also suffered severe smoke damage.

"The owners hadn't returned by the time the crew had finished putting the fire out, but things like this are all in the line of duty," said Mr Mackie.

Red Watch also encountered a lone swan taking in the sights along City Walls Road on the same day.

Firefighters managed to capture the swan and returned it to the station, where a swan rescue specialist collected it for a health check.

"It wasn't hurt. It just seemed to have landed in the wrong place," said Mr Mackie.