Shortly after the Witch Fire started, Emergency Animal Rescue, of Ramona, CA., set-up an evacuation area on the southwest end of Ramona.  A local rancher opened up his ranch for those in need.  160+ horses, some goats, dogs, cats and a rabbit were brought in for care and safety. 

Instead of evacuating we decided to stay at our house for the duration. We had 16 horses and one goat taking shelter at our place during the fire and evacuation.  We felt pretty safe since our neighbor is a Fire Captain for a local helicopter team and he told us we would be fine if we stayed.

My husband Lary and son Jeff, were busy hauling horses for people who didn't have trailers.  Sometimes they just pulled over and asked if people needed their horses hauled.  For those who evacuated and left their horses behind, we were a conduit to let the owners know how their horses were doing.   As soon as things settled at our house, we went to Bobby Neal's ranch where EAR had set up their evacuation site to help there any way we could.

EAR provided hay, water, feed for animals throughout the community during the towns evacuation.  The did shelter in place visits for over 500 animals - in addition to those at the site.  Here are a few pictures.

One of the things we knew for sure was that the need for hay would extend way beyond the evacuation period of seven days.  Many people lost their homes, their barns, their vehicles and all their hay.   



              This used to be a house                                         This was a barn with $4000 of hay in it.

At the time, I was the Vice President and Medical Director for a non-profit horse rescue called High Sierra Wild Horse Sanctuary.  I had been emailing and posting information about the fire daily on the internet and as I was telling everyone about the devastation and the effects on the local horses, people responded by sending donations to purchase hay to feed them.   

Through my family, personal friends, people who had previously gotten horses from us, fellow Mustangs/Wild Horse owners, Ramona Trails Association and a large number of people who are members of the 1320 club (vintage dragster racing people) the word went out and we were able to raise funds to purchase hay from our local dairy - Van Tols Dairy.  Not only did Dan Van Tol sell us hay at affordable rates, but he let us store the hay at his dairy - under cover, so we could get the hay when needed and not have to worry about any disappearing. 

Pierce College brought us the left over hay they had when their evacuation site closed down and we were able to deliver that to Dean Thornberry, the gentleman above who lost all his hay, his horse trailer, and his parents home (which was also on the property). 


                         This is Dean on the left and Jeff Milton on the right.  A late night, but very welcome delivery!

Once the word got out that the hay was available I got calls and emails, usually from the friends of the victims, letting me know who needed the hay and other various things we also had available.  Some people were able to pick up their hay, many people lost their vehicles, so we delivered the hay.  Here are some of the very grateful recipients:

   
   Larry &  Susan Dilbert lost their home                                                Loading hay for delivery
   and are living in their barn.


 
Shirley Kimball of SK Racing, her burned house in the background, had 40 horses in the pasture when the fire blew through and melted her fencing.  Shortly after 3 of them, her oldest, her youngest and a broodmare all died of complications of being in the fire.  The rest of the horses all had burns from the ashes blowing.  In Feb.08, Shirley still was not able to move into the temporary trailer on her property and you can see how they set up her phone service. We made several deliveries to Shirley.