Marion Kimble
With sirens echoing in the distance from emergency teams rushing to battle the flames engulfing the community of Chatsworth, hundreds of men and women anxiously waited to make temporary stable arrangements for their horses which had been evacuated from various ranches threatened by the fire.
The Equestrian Center at Pierce College, often used as an evacuation center during emergencies such as the California wildfires in the October of 2007, was quickly filled to capacity yesterday, when the fire near Porter Ranch forced an evacuation of Stony Point Ranch – which was eventually engulfed in flames – as well as from a few other ranches threatened by encroaching fire.
“It’s kind of like routine this time of year,” said one Pierce student whose horse was moved from Stony Point and is now under the care of the Equestrian Center.
Some owners felt the school was ill prepared for the large task.
One young girl, whose mother refused to allow her daughter or herself to be identified, left the Equestrian Center in tears, exclaiming, “They don’t even cover them,” concerned that her horse would be uncomfortable while in the temporary stable.
Horse owner Sherry Seligman, whose equine from Stony Point, Jud, was housed in the center, showed signs of distress at the fact that her horse, Stella, was nowhere to be found, but tried to remain sympathetic to the volunteers.
“They put my horse in a nice little stall,” Seligman said. “I don’t want him to die, or get stressed out and get laminitis.” According to animalherbcompany.com, laminitis is “a very painful condition of the foot,” or a failure of the “pedal bone and the inner hoof wall.”
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa visited the Equestrian Center today to tour the Emergency Evacuation shelter, which he would also be doing at other locations later on.
Overview of the fires
The Marek and Sesnon fires – the cause of which has not yet been determined – have together burned almost 15,000 acres, Sesnon claiming 13,285 acres north of Chatsworth and Marek scorching 4,824 acres near San Fernando. Though Marek has been 70 percent contained, Sesnon was only 5 percent contained as of this morning.
Filling the Equestrian Center
Volunteer workers, many from the Boots and Saddles Club at Pierce, were so buried in duties and paperwork that they had little time to attend to such issues.
Caitlin Steimle, a volunteer from the Boots and Saddles Club, could be heard over the nays and hoof steps yelling things like, “I’m sure he wants to wipe me out right now,” and “Hello! I have a 1000-pound problem,” as she danced in a circle with an unclaimed horse known only as Shadow because of the “Shadow B” on his halter.
“I have never seen this horse before,” Steimle said. “I guess he was drugged – he’s not drugged anymore!”
As she remained in the small pocket between the horse’s stomach and left foreleg, Steimle said, “Right here is the safe zone,” noting that her “dance partner” could not kick her so long as she remained in that area.
No one was really comfortable referring to the horse even as Shadow, as Eric Cohen, a bystander taking a moment from attending to his horse to assist in the search for the mystery horse’s owner, pointed out that, “We don’t even know, it could be somebody else’s halter.”
In a gesture to recognize the commitment of the volunteers, Gary Miller, who was suggested to be a manager at Ralph’s, delivered what Michal Lipkin, a volunteer and member of the Boots and Saddles Club, described as a “truckload” of sandwiches, parcels of bottled water and sodas to the Equestrian Center for the volunteers.
Hard-working or not, after only a few hours, it became apparent the Equestrian Center was reaching its capacity. The stalls eventually filled, and while volunteers struggled to set up extra stalls to house the overflow of horses, many owners were forced to seek shelter for their steeds elsewhere.
“We’re taking this horse to (the Equestrian Performance Center) out in Moorpark,” said Vicky Dimitmi, an owner waiting with three others for trucks to return with trailers to move the horses around 5 p.m.
Even before then, owners who realized Pierce would soon be overcrowded opted to take their horses elsewhere.
Self-proclaimed “good Samaritan” Bernice Hadella offered to move up to two horses to an area in Simi Valley when she moved her horse to another ranch in that area.
“I only have one horse, and my trailer can hold three,” Hadella said. “Anyone going to Simi can send their horse with me.”
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa gets to know one of the rescued horses during his tour of the Equestrian Center’s Emergency Evacuation shelter, lead by L.A. City Animal Services animal care technician supervisor Pat Ott (not pictured) Tuesday. The mayor spent the day visiting several fire evacuation centers. ()
Workers from the California Department of Conservation attempt to put out fires a few hundred yards from houses in the Knollwood area of Los Angeles Tuesday. ()