Out of the Fire (and the Snake Pit Too)

Several dozen furry critters got an extended lease on life when fire gutted a house in Santa Monica this week.

Apparently destined to be breakfast, lunch or dinner for the tenants’ collection of snakes, the three rabbits and 80-odd rats and mice were trucked off instead to an animal shelter, along with a boa constrictor, corn snake, king snake, two pythons and two lizards.

Although Santa Monica and Los Angeles firefighters were able to extinguish the 4:20 p.m. blaze in only 10 minutes Monday, it took substantially longer to rescue and inventory the menagerie.

Nobody was home at the time. Animal control officers later said four animals died in the blaze. The survivors were being held until their owners, who were not initially identified by authorities, could find a new place to house them.

AND A ONE, AND A TWO: It’s well known that Esa Pekka Salonen makes guest appearances with orchestras around the world, but his next gig away from the L.A. Philharmonic will be close to home.

Very close.

The charismatic Finn--and Santa Monica resident--will put the Santa Monica High School orchestra through its paces at a public concert Monday night, and the young folks are all atwitter.

Salonen has appeared with the group once before, when the orchestra played at the Philharmonic’s International Ball fund-raiser in 1993.

“They’re just thrilled to death,” said Virginia Kohfeld, whose daughter, Cheryl, plays violin. “He’s very personable, but he knows exactly what he wants and it made them feel pretty important.”

On Monday, Salonen will lead the symphonic Samohi’s through Ravel’s “Bolero,” after which director Jeff Edmons will take the podium. Tickets are $15 for general admission, $10 for senior citizens and $8 for students 18 and younger.

WAY EARLY, DUDE: The item on the City News Service schedule of upcoming events for Tuesday was a little hard to believe. “7 a.m. HOLLYWOOD Guitar Center Hollywood will unveil its Vintage Instrument Room . . . “

No guitarist we know was ever up that early, so we called the Hollywood Boulevard music emporium, where manager David Belzer said, “We don’t really know anything on that.”

The event, scheduled to last until the store’s regular opening time of 10 a.m., was supposed to unveil the store’s collection of more than 500 vintage acoustic and electric guitars, basses, banjos, mandolins, lutes and whatnot, complete with music by a live band.

But Belzer said it never happened. The vintage collection has been open since December, he said.

A possible explanation--the announcement came from the store’s management office in Agoura Hills. “We had a little problem with that,” a public relations person there admitted.

MARCIA ALERT: No, not Marcia Clark.

The latest Marcia du jour is none other than Maureen McCormick, known for her depiction of the M-Girl in “The Brady Brunch” on TV. Fans for whom reruns are not enough will be pleased to learn that the entertainer is scheduled to autograph copies of her recently released country music album, “When You Get a Little Lonely,” on April 29 at the Virgin Megastore in West Hollywood.