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The Oasis Sanctuary, in rural southeastern Arizona, cares for captive
exotic birds, mostly parrots. Our eight resident staff look after more
than 400 birds, plus 50 other farmed and domestic animals.
At
9:50 p.m. on May 25, 2005 I stepped outside and saw a plume of fire
towering over the trees––an orange glow, soundless, mindless,
reaching into the heavens. A foreclosed property adjacent to our 72 acres
was fully ablaze.
I
called 911 to get the fire department before doing anything else, but
was told they had already been notified and were on their way. But being
“on their way” is a relative term out here in the rural Southwest.
The members of the Cascabel volunteer fire department are individually
notified. They have one truck and a water tanker. The other local fire
departments are also volunteer. The closest, in St. David, is 45 minutes
away. The next closest is an hour away.
After calling 911, I called and probably awakened one of our staff and
asked him to call everyone else. Within five minutes everyone went to
work.
Neighbors and nearby friends came to help. Eventually firefighters from
five companies came to fight the fire and help protect our sanctuary.
We were fortunate: the air was humid, with no wind. A dry creek that bi-sects
our property separated us from the fire. The fire trucks came down the
dry creek and kept the blaze from jumping to the side of our property
where the birds, other animals, homes and buildings are.
Tucson Avian Rescue and Adoption director Judy Ray and her family and
Sherri Brovas, one of TARA’s co-founders, called, woke, and then
collected people, and soon a four-vehicle convoy had begun a 90-minute
drive to help us move animals.
The fire was so hot and large that even from an eighth of a mile away
it felt like standing beside a large bonfire.
Evacuation plans we had already developed were implemented. Birds indoors
were captured and crated first, as I feared a power outage if the electrical
lines burned. While that was done, cages and carriers were taken out of
the storage and arranged near the outdoor aviaries and enclosures.
Neighbors soaked the areas around buildings. I rounded up the cats and
dogs. Friends from Forever Home Donkey Rescue, about 12 miles down the
road, came with their van and took charge of getting the horses and cattle
to safety.
At 1:30 am we were told we could stand down. At least for now the fire
was contained and evacuation was no longer imminent. I decided to keep
things ready until the fire was completely out. We left the crated birds
and other animals in their carriers overnight. Trucks and vans were on
standby. Materials for evacuation left where they were. We called the
TARA crew on their cell phones and they turned back before arriving, with
the understanding that they were available should things become worse.
Tom Trebeski, who is our webmaster as well as a TARA and Oasis volunteer,
had no cell phone. He spent the night in our small guest house.
With our friends’ help we could have gotten out with all the birds,
stressed and shaken, but alive.
The fire did burn some of our property, but no buildings were damaged.
Most of the smoke and ash stayed clear of the birds.
Near dawn I kicked off my shoes and went to bed, fully clothed. I napped
until staff who had worked until almost 2 a.m., and one who had not been
to sleep yet, showed up for work at 7 am. I told them to go home after
feeding and call it a day.
Later that afternoon Oasis associate director T.J. Georgitso and I drove
to Benson, 40 minutes away, to pick up supplies. We were supposed
to go to Tucson to pick up a bird at the airport at 9:30 p.m., but
I did not feel comfortable having both of us away.
We arranged for two volunteers to receive the bird at the airport, and
returned to The Oasis at 6:30 to find rising wind fanning the smoking
hot spots back up into fires. Thirty-foot hollow trees were burning on
the inside, spewing sparks from their tops onto unburned areas of dry
grass.
The men got shovels and the water sprayers we use to spray down the birds
and set to work, soon joined by neighbors. I called the fire department.
Their line was busy. I called 911. When a fire crew came, two hours later,
90% of the fire was out.
We continued to find and hose down hot spots for another day, until at
last a rain storm relieved us of duty. Never had we been so happy to be
soggy!
Our staff will use this experience to devise an even better, quicker way
of handling this sort of emergency.
There are fire-breaks to create, brush to be cleared. We need to improve
the three trailers we had already acquired as evacuation vehicles. We
learned that we will need to keep more tools, back-up equipment, and supplies
on hand, including bandages for bird bites.
We are now suggesting that each staff member should keep a small duffel
bag containing a couple of changes of clothing, a second pair of shoes,
and copies of papers that might be important to have in the event of an
actual emergency evacuation.
We will not have to rise like the Phoenix from the ashes, but as well-prepared
as we thought we were, we learned that we must become better prepared
yet.
