We always hope the worst doesn’t come, but hoping doesn’t prevent disaster. In our ever more volatile world all you can do is try to stay one step ahead by preparing and knowing what to expect should the worst happen.
Evacuating is hard even if it’s just you and your immediate family, but it becomes exponentially more complicated when you throw animals into the mix, even more so when those animals are poultry.
In 2020 I was faced with this problem and I want to share what I expierienced and learned in the hope that it helps someone else, wether it be to fire, storms, or whatever other reason.
On the morning of August 17 a fire ignited in the Plumas National Forest, California.
The Bear fire continued to grow and as of the morning of September 8 it was encroaching on the small town of Forbestown just a few miles north of where I live.
Throughout the day it continued to grow, we were issued an evacuation warning not long after.
We thought we had time to pack, we did but it was a mistake to assume that on our part. We managed to use the few hours we had to pack up what we could and get the animals ready to go along with everything they might need that we were able to bring.
By late afternoon we were issued an evacuation order, the smoke had begun blackening the sky, making it look like well after nightfall.
By evening some of us wanted to stay, some wanted to go, it was a back and forth argument of wether it was worth it to stress the animals and going through the bother of evacuating. The illusion of having a choice disappeared when the glow of flames peaked over the horizon.
At the time I had 3 dogs, 1 cat, 4 ducks, and 11 geese.
The dogs rode in the back seat of the truck, the cat in his travel crate, the ducks were put into a dog travel crate, 2 geese “the murder birds” were put into the second dog travel crate, and the rest of the geese were put in the back of our suv on top of a blanket. I had all of the animals loaded up in 6 minutes.
Then we all left immediately.
We spent the next week at a relative’s house who had an unused horse corral and shed.
Evacuating makes uncomfortable bed fellows and I had to keep my birds in horribly confined quarters despite not all of them getting along.
Coyotes frequent the area and can get into the corral fairly easily so at night Darby and Strawberry “the murder birds” had to be wedged into a corner for everyone else’s safety, the ducks were divided between the two travel crates, and the rest of the geese had what remaining space there was in the stall.
During the day the geese split there time out in the corral and inside the shed, the poor ducks only got short outings away from their crates. “Every time they were let out they tried escaping down the road.”
The dogs and cat stayed down at garage/shop with the rest of us.
After a week evacuations were lifted and we were able to return home. Our house managed to survive.
I am so so grateful that Calfire managed to stop the fire but I do not consider it a personal victory, I can’t celebrate when so many others lost so much.
So here’s what I learned from this experience...
#1 BE PREPARED
Have a plan.
Think about what you will need to do to be able to get out as fast as you can, what means you have to transport your animals, in what order you’ll separate and load them up, where you’ll go and what you’ll need once you’re there. Try to streamline and simplify your plan as much as possible, the less last minute issues that can pop up the better.
Make sure everything you and they need is ready and waiting to go.
Things your birds will need:
Buckets
Food
Water
Vitamin supplements + meds and medical supplies
Some way of separating and transporting them like travel crates
Blankets to use for shelter and shade
Some sort of portable enclosure if you can’t find anywhere to contain them.
Have some extra money set aside for whatever else you might need. You probably will have to come up with cash for feed, water, or even a spare cage or two, easier said than done but it will make everything easier when it comes to that.
#2 Leave when you are told to leave!
You might think you have time, you might but you probably don’t. The best thing you can do for yourself, your family, and your animals is to use your brain and heed the warnings you’re given but also leave if the fire looks like it’s coming your way even if you’re not told to leave.
The Camp fire gave the citizens of Paradise CA just minutes, many who tried to leave weren’t able to, they were caught in the fire and didn’t make it. The Bear fire swept through Berry Creek before it threatened Forbestown, some tried to escape and didn’t make it, others stayed because they thought they could protect their homes and hold the fire off. They died.
The surface temperature of a forest fire is 1500 degrees to 2000 degrees, those temperatures incinerate. When a forest fire is raging it generates its own weather and whips itself up into a firestorm, trees full of sap combust, pine cones explode and launch themselves like missiles. The ash and charcoal in the smoke ignite the surrounding forest that the flames haven’t even reached yet. Falling ash and cinders ignite houses that aren’t even touched by the fire yet, area’s manicured and cleared of underbrush aren’t safe because the fire still spreads through the canopy.
There is no fire truck or crew that can actively fight a forest fire, how fire crews actually fight a forest fire is by containing the fire within an area and letting it burn itself out and by dumping retardant on unburned patches. You can not fight a forest fire yourself.
Those people that we hear about that managed to stay and save their homes from a fire did so by nothing more than random luck.
Don’t risk your life on the empty promise of random luck, if you’re given the chance to leave take it, you may lose your home and belongings but you’ll have your life, your family’s life, and your animals lives.
#3 Don’t assume anyone will help you.
Part of why it took so long to leave was because there was nowhere to take the birds, the offer from our relative came at the last minute. The Red Cross wasn’t offering assistance for people’s animals, the humane society was accepting dogs and cats into shelters and large animals “horses, cows, goats” at a parking lot shelter they’d set up, but they weren’t accepting poultry.
As it was if they had the animals were in a bare parking lot without shelter or shade in the hot California sun, temps were ranging between 100 to 103 degrees, they had minimal volunteers to feed, water, and care for the animals. My birds would have died there.
Calling around during the week we were evacuated there weren’t shelters offering room and assistance to poultry, there wasn’t any help set up or offered to people with poultry. If you had poultry you were on your own.
Later the humane society would start offering assistance. Another one of my relatives was evacuated because of a fire a few months after I was, she had some chicks she left in the care of the humane society while she was relocated. They left her chicks in a bag in the sun all day and they died.
So the lesson here is not to expect anyone to help you, you are your birds only help and chance of survival, it’s up to you not to let them down.
You may have to move yourself and your birds onto a vacant lot, onto a relative’s property who knows how far away, or even in the middle of nowhere “we were actually considering that option at one point.” You May have to become really creative and adaptable.
#4 Don’t trust anyone.
No one knows your animals like you do, others don’t care about them like you do or care enough to bother to try. Once again you’re the only one you can trust and rely on to make sure your birds are taken care of and kept alive.
No one is going to make sure they don’t overheat, no one is going to make sure they have water and are fed, no one is going to make sure they are in a safe environment like you would.
The best you can do if your forced to place your birds in the care of another is to try and ensure that they have their most basic need met, shelter, food, water, and some degree of safety, I do encourage reaching out to the humane society or other animal welfare groups, but do not assume they know what they are doing.
You can tell people as much as you want but unless they have birds themselves they just don’t get it. Even volunteers helping at shelters that will accept birds aren’t going to recognize the signs of a bird in destress unless they have birds themselves.
Even people you know aren’t necessarily much help. The last day at my relative’s house I caught them walking into the corral with their two unleashed dogs. They didn’t understand what the big deal was, only someone with a flock of their own would understand why you don’t let unrestrained dogs unused to poultry into an enclousure with them.
#5 TAKE/ KEEP PICTURES OF YOUR ANIMALS!
Take/keep photos of your animals on you, and take photos of your animals in their cages before you hand them off to a rescue organization. The rescue may require photographic proof that the animals belong to you before you can get them back again.
During and after the Parasise Camp Fire the humane society was requiring people to show photographic proof of rescued animals before they’d allow them to be claimed.
#6 Take everything one step at a time
Evacuating, seeing how stressed your animals and family is, thinking about how your home and belongings are gone or possibly gone is a lot. It’s going to take everything you have to get through it. My advice is to focus on the little things, take everything as it comes to you and try not to think about the big things like the fire, your house and the rest, you’ll have time to deal with that later.
Focus on what you need in the moment, what your family needs and what your animals need in the moment. Take it step by step, day by day. That’s the only way your going to handle it all. You can take far more and overcome far more than you thought possible when you learn to take it one step at a time.
#7 The end is not the end
There was a day I thought the house had burnt down and that myself and my 3 dogs, cat, 2 ducks, and 11 geese were homeless, but we were still alive.
When tragedy occurs life won’t be the same, you won’t have the life you had, but you still have a life, it will be different, and very likely difficult in different ways than it was before, but you still have your life.
Evacuating is hard even if it’s just you and your immediate family, but it becomes exponentially more complicated when you throw animals into the mix, even more so when those animals are poultry.
In 2020 I was faced with this problem and I want to share what I expierienced and learned in the hope that it helps someone else, wether it be to fire, storms, or whatever other reason.
On the morning of August 17 a fire ignited in the Plumas National Forest, California.
The Bear fire continued to grow and as of the morning of September 8 it was encroaching on the small town of Forbestown just a few miles north of where I live.
Throughout the day it continued to grow, we were issued an evacuation warning not long after.
We thought we had time to pack, we did but it was a mistake to assume that on our part. We managed to use the few hours we had to pack up what we could and get the animals ready to go along with everything they might need that we were able to bring.
By late afternoon we were issued an evacuation order, the smoke had begun blackening the sky, making it look like well after nightfall.
By evening some of us wanted to stay, some wanted to go, it was a back and forth argument of wether it was worth it to stress the animals and going through the bother of evacuating. The illusion of having a choice disappeared when the glow of flames peaked over the horizon.
At the time I had 3 dogs, 1 cat, 4 ducks, and 11 geese.
The dogs rode in the back seat of the truck, the cat in his travel crate, the ducks were put into a dog travel crate, 2 geese “the murder birds” were put into the second dog travel crate, and the rest of the geese were put in the back of our suv on top of a blanket. I had all of the animals loaded up in 6 minutes.
Then we all left immediately.
We spent the next week at a relative’s house who had an unused horse corral and shed.
Evacuating makes uncomfortable bed fellows and I had to keep my birds in horribly confined quarters despite not all of them getting along.
Coyotes frequent the area and can get into the corral fairly easily so at night Darby and Strawberry “the murder birds” had to be wedged into a corner for everyone else’s safety, the ducks were divided between the two travel crates, and the rest of the geese had what remaining space there was in the stall.
During the day the geese split there time out in the corral and inside the shed, the poor ducks only got short outings away from their crates. “Every time they were let out they tried escaping down the road.”
The dogs and cat stayed down at garage/shop with the rest of us.
After a week evacuations were lifted and we were able to return home. Our house managed to survive.
I am so so grateful that Calfire managed to stop the fire but I do not consider it a personal victory, I can’t celebrate when so many others lost so much.
So here’s what I learned from this experience...
#1 BE PREPARED
Have a plan.
Think about what you will need to do to be able to get out as fast as you can, what means you have to transport your animals, in what order you’ll separate and load them up, where you’ll go and what you’ll need once you’re there. Try to streamline and simplify your plan as much as possible, the less last minute issues that can pop up the better.
Make sure everything you and they need is ready and waiting to go.
Things your birds will need:
Buckets
Food
Water
Vitamin supplements + meds and medical supplies
Some way of separating and transporting them like travel crates
Blankets to use for shelter and shade
Some sort of portable enclosure if you can’t find anywhere to contain them.
Have some extra money set aside for whatever else you might need. You probably will have to come up with cash for feed, water, or even a spare cage or two, easier said than done but it will make everything easier when it comes to that.
#2 Leave when you are told to leave!
You might think you have time, you might but you probably don’t. The best thing you can do for yourself, your family, and your animals is to use your brain and heed the warnings you’re given but also leave if the fire looks like it’s coming your way even if you’re not told to leave.
The Camp fire gave the citizens of Paradise CA just minutes, many who tried to leave weren’t able to, they were caught in the fire and didn’t make it. The Bear fire swept through Berry Creek before it threatened Forbestown, some tried to escape and didn’t make it, others stayed because they thought they could protect their homes and hold the fire off. They died.
The surface temperature of a forest fire is 1500 degrees to 2000 degrees, those temperatures incinerate. When a forest fire is raging it generates its own weather and whips itself up into a firestorm, trees full of sap combust, pine cones explode and launch themselves like missiles. The ash and charcoal in the smoke ignite the surrounding forest that the flames haven’t even reached yet. Falling ash and cinders ignite houses that aren’t even touched by the fire yet, area’s manicured and cleared of underbrush aren’t safe because the fire still spreads through the canopy.
There is no fire truck or crew that can actively fight a forest fire, how fire crews actually fight a forest fire is by containing the fire within an area and letting it burn itself out and by dumping retardant on unburned patches. You can not fight a forest fire yourself.
Those people that we hear about that managed to stay and save their homes from a fire did so by nothing more than random luck.
Don’t risk your life on the empty promise of random luck, if you’re given the chance to leave take it, you may lose your home and belongings but you’ll have your life, your family’s life, and your animals lives.
#3 Don’t assume anyone will help you.
Part of why it took so long to leave was because there was nowhere to take the birds, the offer from our relative came at the last minute. The Red Cross wasn’t offering assistance for people’s animals, the humane society was accepting dogs and cats into shelters and large animals “horses, cows, goats” at a parking lot shelter they’d set up, but they weren’t accepting poultry.
As it was if they had the animals were in a bare parking lot without shelter or shade in the hot California sun, temps were ranging between 100 to 103 degrees, they had minimal volunteers to feed, water, and care for the animals. My birds would have died there.
Calling around during the week we were evacuated there weren’t shelters offering room and assistance to poultry, there wasn’t any help set up or offered to people with poultry. If you had poultry you were on your own.
Later the humane society would start offering assistance. Another one of my relatives was evacuated because of a fire a few months after I was, she had some chicks she left in the care of the humane society while she was relocated. They left her chicks in a bag in the sun all day and they died.
So the lesson here is not to expect anyone to help you, you are your birds only help and chance of survival, it’s up to you not to let them down.
You may have to move yourself and your birds onto a vacant lot, onto a relative’s property who knows how far away, or even in the middle of nowhere “we were actually considering that option at one point.” You May have to become really creative and adaptable.
#4 Don’t trust anyone.
No one knows your animals like you do, others don’t care about them like you do or care enough to bother to try. Once again you’re the only one you can trust and rely on to make sure your birds are taken care of and kept alive.
No one is going to make sure they don’t overheat, no one is going to make sure they have water and are fed, no one is going to make sure they are in a safe environment like you would.
The best you can do if your forced to place your birds in the care of another is to try and ensure that they have their most basic need met, shelter, food, water, and some degree of safety, I do encourage reaching out to the humane society or other animal welfare groups, but do not assume they know what they are doing.
You can tell people as much as you want but unless they have birds themselves they just don’t get it. Even volunteers helping at shelters that will accept birds aren’t going to recognize the signs of a bird in destress unless they have birds themselves.
Even people you know aren’t necessarily much help. The last day at my relative’s house I caught them walking into the corral with their two unleashed dogs. They didn’t understand what the big deal was, only someone with a flock of their own would understand why you don’t let unrestrained dogs unused to poultry into an enclousure with them.
#5 TAKE/ KEEP PICTURES OF YOUR ANIMALS!
Take/keep photos of your animals on you, and take photos of your animals in their cages before you hand them off to a rescue organization. The rescue may require photographic proof that the animals belong to you before you can get them back again.
During and after the Parasise Camp Fire the humane society was requiring people to show photographic proof of rescued animals before they’d allow them to be claimed.
#6 Take everything one step at a time
Evacuating, seeing how stressed your animals and family is, thinking about how your home and belongings are gone or possibly gone is a lot. It’s going to take everything you have to get through it. My advice is to focus on the little things, take everything as it comes to you and try not to think about the big things like the fire, your house and the rest, you’ll have time to deal with that later.
Focus on what you need in the moment, what your family needs and what your animals need in the moment. Take it step by step, day by day. That’s the only way your going to handle it all. You can take far more and overcome far more than you thought possible when you learn to take it one step at a time.
#7 The end is not the end
There was a day I thought the house had burnt down and that myself and my 3 dogs, cat, 2 ducks, and 11 geese were homeless, but we were still alive.
When tragedy occurs life won’t be the same, you won’t have the life you had, but you still have a life, it will be different, and very likely difficult in different ways than it was before, but you still have your life.
