Locals take in large animals evacuated from Loma Fire

The Loma Fire is making for another busy night for firefighters, and animal rescue workers.

Getting large animals off the mountains has been particularly challenging.

Equine Evac Volunteer Hap Ballard says his phone hasn’t stopped ringing since he started his shift this morning.

“The horses are spooked, and there is a fire going on. I mean, there is a fire going on around us,” a resident called to ask Ballard for help.

“There are four people that are up there right now that are pulling horses out and the fire is burning on both sides of the road and they had to be let in by firefighters to protect them,” Ballard said.

It was already 9 p.m., and volunteers were still working to get six horses out.

Ballard says there are a lot of horses up in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

“In the Summit Fire a few years back, we took over 200 horses over the hills up there. So there are literally hundreds of horses up there,” Ballard said.

And getting them out is hard.

“The smoke really affects their eyes. So they lose a lot of their vision. And they don’t know what’s going on, so just makes them act crazy,” Ballard said.

In addition to county resources, many ranch owners have opened their gates to help.

“These people were evacuated with a 10 minute warning, I was told. They came last night, one trailer after another,” said Denise Jungling with South Bay Horse Ranch.

And within a few hours, her ranch was filled with horses.

“At 9 o’clock, we had our first horses come through our gate, and by midnight, we had 21 horses here. And we are expecting a few more tonight,” Jungling said.

People have also showed up unexpectedly with hay to feed the animals.

“They say a horse goes through about a bale every six days. We just randomly picked up six bales and here I am,'”said Staci Linden with Linden and Cupps Hay Barn.

People like Jungling and Linden say they don’t expect to be paid, they just want to help out the community.