Rick Miller was one of the lucky ones. He and his family were spared from the Eaton fire tearing through Altadena, CA, northeast of Los Angeles. But that fortune didn’t satisfy Rick who scoured his ravaged neighborhood for people and animals to help.
While checking on a friend’s home, Miller spotted an injured dog across the street sprawled in the rubble and ash. He rushed over and laid a blanket over the distressed pet. Miller arranged for his transport to the Pasadena Humane Society where he was treated for burns and smoke inhalation. The shelter had admitted more than 400 displaced pets covered with burns.
“You just wanna help your friends out, help your families out, help the animals out,” Miller told CNN last Wednesday.
Blocks away, an ABC News crew shot footage of a black dog skittering past flaming homes, bushes and fences. Firefighter, Slater Lee, called the frightened dog over to him. Bracing his fire hose and directing the spray of water with one hand, the firefighter leaned down and, with his free hand, pat the dog on the head. A local animal rescue organization later whisked the dog to safety.
Photo courtesy of ABC News
Last Saturday, dozens of volunteers at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center in nearby Burbank, walked and fed hundreds of horses. Some of the animals were dropped off by evacuating ranch owners. Law enforcement corralled others who ran loose. The Center received a crush of donations: apples and carrots for the horses and donkeys, pizza and sandwiches for the volunteers.
Annie Harvillecz, a DVM in Marina Del Rey, took in 41 animals, most from families with multiple pets. “It’s hard to find a shelter opportunity when you have eight cats,” Harvillecz told CBS News. “We’re also helping a lot of smaller rescues . . . who have to evacuate their facilities.” Thirty-eight of the animals she’d taken in have been returned safely to their humans.
“It’s such an amazing story. How many volunteers we have, how many people have reached out and said, ‘I can foster. I can take dogs and cats.’”
Such acts mark L.A. metro’s response to the worst natural disaster in the region’s history. At press time, fires in Pacific Palisades, Altadena, and the San Fernando valley — collectively, larger than the city of Miami — remain minimally contained. Quiescent “devil winds” have whipped up again fanning embers witnesses have described as “snowflakes from hell.” The death toll stands at 25 and rising. Upwards of 12,000 structures have been destroyed, including many historic landmarks. Countless lives have been upended and shaken down; memories and graphed family trees, obliterated.
As residents pick through their charred remains, questions pierce the haze of lingering smoke and ash: Can I afford to rebuild and insure? Can water reserves and infrastructure be adapted to fight massive conflagrations? Will climate deniers in elected governance throw accelerant on an already parched environment?
Through the settling dust of calamity, one image shines clear and sharp. People of all means and hues and politics rallying to each other’s side. Giving comfort to strangers more akin to them than they imagined. Finding among the rubble the grandeur of small kindnesses.
Click here for a list of vetted charities to help victims of L.A. and SoCal wildfires.