RUMFORD – House pets Big Mama, Albie, Sabrina and Jagger suffered no apparent injuries Thursday afternoon when flames and smoke swept through multiple ceilings above them during an electrical fire at the Smithville Road home of Raymond and Cheryl Baker.

Big Mama is an 18-foot-long Burmese python. Albie is a 13-foot-long albino Burmese python. Sabrina is a 6-foot-long red tail boa constrictor, and Jagger is a 13-year-old Maine coon cat. The snakes were kept inside a large, glass-enclosed cage, Cheryl Baker said.

“Those snakes are worth more than my house,” said Cheryl, who married Raymond in July, just after they finished extensive renovations to the 1920s-era home in Rumford’s Smith Crossing neighborhood.

Raymond Baker, a building contractor, was working in Embden Thursday when his wife smelled something odd in the kitchen shortly before 1:15 p.m. and went to investigate.

“It first smelled like Raid – like someone had sprayed Raid – but I was the only one home and the doors were all locked,” Cheryl Baker said.

Standing near the sink, she looked up, saw smoke, then the cardboard-like ceiling charred around a light. She called 911, said she heard the downstairs smoke detector go off and got out quickly.

As Rumford and Mexico firefighters arrived within minutes and set up, Cheryl Baker stood outside crying, consoled by friends and neighbors. Firefighter teams donned breathing gear and face masks before entering, then some came back out, motioning for pry bars and a chain saw.

At first they were perplexed, because they couldn’t find the fire, but knew it was there, Rumford Deputy Chief Ben Byam said.

Someone found Jagger and put him in the bathroom until they could safely bring him out, which a firefighter did at about 2:20 p.m.

Byam said the fire extended across the house from one room to another within three ceilings, one atop the other. A hole poked through one ceiling revealed a lot of smoke but no fire. Eventually, they found it in the kitchen and doused it, then vented the one-story building with an exhaust fan.

He estimated damage at $3,000, and said the Bakers could stay in it tonight, with approval from an electrician.

“I just thank God these guys are fast. If they had been any slower, I’m sure I would have lost my home,” Cheryl Baker said.

It was her first fire, but Big Mama’s second.

Cheryl Baker said their biggest snake was a rescued burn victim.

“The people who had her, they kept her in a cat carrier, and it had a fluorescent light in it and she got burned by it from head to tail,” she said.

After Thursday’s fire, Baker said the snakes all seemed to be fine.