Christ Yoder
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WEAVERVILLE, Calif. – People who evacuated their homes because of the monument fire seized everything they could, including their pets.
But the Trinity County Animal Shelter is running out of space. This is because the shelter has hosted many pets who evacuated the fire with their owners.
“We have very limited space here,” said Christina Merritt, director and supervisor of the Trinity County Animal Shelter.
“We’re trying to make sure we have enough room for things to be picked up after the fire.”
The animal shelter has moved some of its adoptable pets to other shelters to make room for animals forced to evacuate the monument fire.
“A rescue from the Eugene area of Oregon called Lucky Paws that we’ve worked with in the past, they were kind of enough to pull whatever they had room for,” Merritt said.
“So that was very, very lucky for us.”
The shelter urges people to keep their pets close if they cannot or to consider other private boarding options for their pets.
Another animal disposal site is set up in Humboldt County at the Hoopa Rodeo Grounds in Willow Creek.
But Don Freeman has been out of his house for four days. As evacuation orders fell, Freeman said the first thing he needed to do was grab his animals.
“I was at church and the pastor came and told us they had ordered a mandatory evacuation,” Freeman said.
“We just got out of the church and went straight home. We picked up our animals and moved them around at that time.
Now he is looking for a safe place for his pets to avoid the danger of fire.
“I’m here in animal shelters to see how to board my cats,” Freeman said. “To make it easier for me to stay with certain people. “
Freeman told Action News Now that he and his great-grandson were staying with friends at their church in Weaverville.
Meanwhile, fire crews set up two base camps near the Monument Fire for quicker access to the front lines. One of the base camps is located at Lowden Park in Weaverville, while the other camp is at Willow Creek in Humboldt County.
Around the park are tents, showers and a place for firefighters to eat and rest.
“The way this incident was organized is due to the covid, we have three different locations for the camp,” said Paul Hancock, a public information officer on the Monument Fire.
“In an ideal situation, you would have everyone in one place. So you can really talk to them and get a good idea, minimize the distance to go and that sort of thing.
A landslide on Highway 299 impacted firefighting efforts last week. It was then that the crews realized they needed another base camp on the other side of the blaze.
“We realized very quickly that we needed to make sure that firefighters can be safe and not have to travel in a dangerous environment and can easily access resources,” Hancock explained.
The Monument fire command center is located in Redding.
