Although 98 percent contained by Monday evening, the Sand Fire, which broke out July 22 near Sand Canyon Road along the Antelope Valley (14) Freeway, resulted in the evacuation of an estimated 20,000 people and nearly 800 pets and farm animals. Fueled by 100-degree temperatures, gusty winds and drought conditions, the state proclaimed a State of Emergency for Los Angeles County on July 26.
In Malibu, Sherman Baylin, longtime resident and owner of “Sherman’s Place” pet groomers, leapt into action as soon as word of the big fire got out and she started receiving calls from horse owners without trailers in the fire zone who wanted to evacuate.
“Animal Control can’t release trucks and trailers until evacuation is mandatory, so I implore animal owners not to wait until the last minute,” Baylin said.
More than 20 years ago, she formed an informal volunteer group to evacuate horses and other farm animals from large wildfires in the greater LA area. There are currently 16 people with horse trailers in the group.
Even though Baylin might not talk to some people in the group very often — whatever the time lapse is between fires — she said she still knows they’ll be ready to go on a moment’s notice when called … a kind of animal rescue sleeper cell.
“We’re like the rescuers from Misfit Island,” Baylin laughed. “We’re a little bit off the grid and we’re not [an] official anything.”
She calls her group of horse rescuers “HLG,’ which stands for “Hey, let’s go!” The group is committed to leaving home with their horse trailers within 90 minutes of being called. “And there are no questions about who pays for gas, who pays for any damage to the trailer or lost halters,” Baylin said. Some of the volunteers are also trained medics or veterinary technicians.
“It takes people who aren’t rude, don’t have an attitude and don’t get hysterical,” she added. “We need to be a help to the Sheriff and Fire departments, not a hindrance.”
All of the employees at Sherman’s Place (Heather Devlin, Marlon Harris and Ashely Osberg) pitch in to help with phone calls and social media alerts to the volunteers, as well as local Janet Bridges and Pacific Coast Pets employee Mira Paplanus.
In addition to evacuations, volunteers can be sent to county shelter sites that include Pierce College and the Antelope Valley Fair Grounds, as well as county animal shelters, and asked to do intakes, watering, feeding and cleaning.
At the height of the fire, 768 animals were cared for in eight locations by the LA County Dept. of Animal Care & Control, including 345 horses, 165 goats, 111 chickens, 33 pigs and many other animals including llamas, mules, sheep, rabbits, ducks, turkeys and donkeys.
“We give comfort to stressed-out animals whose owners had to go back to the house,” Baylin said. “We take over as the guardians for these animals.”
Once the evacuations are over and animals are allowed to return home, the college and fairgrounds have to be cleaned up.
Denise Rosen, manager of the Agoura Hills Animal Shelter, praised Baylin.
“After the fires, Sherman also came out to help clean up the stalls at Pierce College and other shelter sites with outside temperatures over 100 degrees,” Rosen said.
Jonsie Ross, whom many locals have met doing marine mammal and bird rescues in Malibu — not to mention the famous rescue of a coyote with the tube stuck on its head — with the California Wildlife Center for 11 years, was pressed into service rescuing dogs during the fire. She helped Deaf Dog Rescue of America in Acton evacuate 50 dogs and two cats to Lancaster State Prison.
“It was pretty amazing,” Ross said. “There were a lot of road closures, so it was tough just getting there … but it was one of the best times of my life.”
After helping to crate and load all the dogs and their supplies, she and another volunteer left the Deaf Dog Rescue with a truck full of dogs as the advance team, thinking they were headed to Antelope Valley Fairgrounds — then got the call to divert to Lancaster State Prison.
“I turned to my dogs and said, ‘Okie dokey, we’re headed to the Pokey!” she laughed.
The founder of the Deaf Dog Rescue program runs a program with Karma Rescue in two prisons in California called Paws for Life, where inmates are given an unadoptable shelter dog to train for 10 weeks, helping them to become adoptable; so the prison was already set up for the dogs when they got there.