We Survived Two Fires
by Syd Sullins
On the afternoon of June 4th, I started receiving calls that there was a fire near The Ranch. I messaged The Ranch board, a few volunteers and the staff and headed that way. It was an extremely hot and windy day which made me nervous. I soon realized the Libramiento was closed due to the fire, so I headed through Chapala. I have to say what I saw on the way up to the shelter was very ominous. Lots of fire and smoke and from The Ranch road I could see lots of flames to the south.
When I arrived, things seemed a bit better. The smoke wasn’t affecting the dogs, and we adopted a "wait and see" mode. Meanwhile, the offers of help continued to pour in. Many people braved the smoke and flames to come to us and simply said “how can I help?” We had discussed how to handle a fire in the past, and we quickly realized that this is something you really can’t effectively plan ahead. There are no hard or fast answers and lots of variables. During the worst of it, we considered our last ditch plan. We figured we would put as many dogs as possible into available cars to evacuate and then open the runs so the other dogs could fend for themselves and get away from the fire if it got closer.
Luckily, Jena Olio of Clicker Pets Mexico called and offered the use of her new training facility. The runs were in and ready for a grand opening but she hadn’t yet accepted dogs. Within minutes, Jena and her team were at The Ranch and helping us load up our dogs. We made a quick trip to Jena’s and moved the dogs into new runs and play yards. At the end of that afternoon, all of us were hot and exhausted, but so comforted to see the dogs safe. And the road to the south of the Ranch had served as a fire break, so nothing at The Ranch was damaged.
The next morning we put out a call for volunteers to help bring the dogs back and to spend time with them, as they were all stressed out. Again, our volunteers and community came through for us! Within no time, all the dogs were back in their original runs and volunteers were providing loving help to ease their anxiety. We went home that afternoon feeling we had dodged a bullet. But then at 2:00 we started receiving calls of ANOTHER fire. None of us could believe we would be faced with this two days in a row, but that’s exactly what happened.
The second fire was even closer to the shelter, this time to our north. When we arrived, the bomberos were already on site and quickly got to work along with our staff and some very brave volunteers. And this time, with no road to serve as a fire break, the fire was headed directly toward our back kennels. We moved the dogs nearest to the fire into the play yards and again, volunteers and members of this community began to show up with offers to help. This time, we took everyone up on their offer. Once again, Jena took a bunch of dogs, 58 in total. Flower with Stray Dogs of Mexico loaded up her truck with as many as she could accommodate. And other folks began arriving to help in anyway. Many people we didn’t know but most agreed to temporarily foster a few dogs. By the time the fire was extinguished, it had reached less than 10 meters from our runs. It had also encircled our tinaco.
The next day our staff came in bright and early to assess the damage. While our tinaco appeared unharmed, our water lines were destroyed. Dulce and Manuel made arrangements for a backhoe to come in that afternoon to dig a trench and they worked hard all day to lay a new line. They were slowed down by the scorched earth, which was still too hot to stand on and still hot enough to melt the new line. It was very late in the afternoon before it had cooled. They acted amazingly quickly and efficiently to get our property up and running again. While staff held the fort at The Ranch, volunteers again went to Jena's and Flower's facilities to help with feeding and poop clean-up, and to spend time with the dogs to give them a bit of continuity and normalcy in this stressful time for them.
On Wednesday we were ready to accept our dogs back. Once again, our volunteers turned out in droves to help us transport them. They also helped Jena and Flower with final clean-up. And we had so many offers of donations to help us get our water lines repaired. After three grueling days for all of us and the dogs, it was so good to be back to normal. It was definitely the quietest afternoon we'd had in a while. After mealtime, all of the dogs napped deeply and seemed quite relieved to be home. We can’t thank all those who helped us enough! We really felt like the community we serve had our back at this difficult time.
We have since created an emergency WhatsApp text list in case of another incident. If you want to be put on the list, please email Valerie at valerieabernathy@gmail.com. If help is needed, we will send out a text to everyone informing them of the type of help needed.