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Nearly 30 horses found burned to death by Creek fire in Sylmar
l a times ^ | 12/06/2017 | Brittny Mejia

Posted on 12/06/2017 2:52:43 PM PST by BenLurkin

Amid the charred landscape of Little Tujunga Canyon Road in Sylmar on Wednesday stood the remains of Rancho Padilla and the carcasses of nearly 30 horses who died in the fast-moving Creek fire.

The Padilla family was there Wednesday morning, surveying the smoldering ranch that their father built more than 20 years ago. They somberly counted up the dead horses, whose charred bodies lined dozens of stalls. The family, who lives up the hill from the ranch, had awakened Tuesday to flames. One firetruck came and told them to leave.

“All I could think about was the horses, the horses, the horses. And they were like, ‘Get out, get out, get out,’ ” said Patricia Padilla, whose family owns the ranch. “The structures can get rebuilt, but the lives of the horses can’t. ... That’s my biggest heartbreak.”

The ranch, which boards horses, had more than 60 housed there, said Virginia Padilla, Patricia’s older sister. They put the count of dead horses at 29.

The family was familiar with each owner and would be calling them throughout the day to deliver the grim news and offer condolences.

On Wednesday morning, the smell of fire hung in the air and mixed with the odor of burned carcasses. Blackened horseshoes and traces of blood littered the stalls as a heavy silence blanketed the ranch. The stillness was broken only occasionally by the whinnies of a surviving horse and the crowing of a rooster.

Shelby Hope brought Oscar Martinez, a horse owner, and others up Wednesday morning to see whether the horses had survived and how she could help. She’s been coming to the ranch for about five years, to attend rodeos and spend time with friends.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: barn; equines; fires; horses; livestock
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To: Bonemaker

I dont understand why they dont systematically clear brush and/or make very wide fireroads crisscrossing these wide areas. I wonder if anyone is working on a remote control 4 engine 20,000 gallon water cannon equipped drone helicopter to fly in areas where it is more dangerous to fly with people. Or something like that...


41 posted on 12/06/2017 4:12:09 PM PST by Getready (Wisdom is more valuable than gold and diamonds, and harder to find)
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To: Bonemaker
Somehow you gotta know the criminal California government is complicit with some pc laws against periodic clearing of brush, controlled burns, or any other rational fire prevention activities.

Yep, a winner! That goes for the left coast, period.

42 posted on 12/06/2017 4:12:25 PM PST by MarMema (I now choose to live my life as a heterosexual married woman)
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To: Getready
I dont understand why they dont systematically clear brush and..

Mother earth doesn't need human help, dontcha know? Liberals don't believe in forest management.

43 posted on 12/06/2017 4:14:49 PM PST by MarMema (I now choose to live my life as a heterosexual married woman)
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To: MarMema

Even if ya clear your home, with wind driven wild fires, embers can EASILY be blown hundreds of feet across cleared ground right up under you eves etc...In many cases hot embers can be blown in for miles in front of fire lines, creating more fires.


44 posted on 12/06/2017 4:15:24 PM PST by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: wardaddy

I thought the same at first, but it says individual stalls. 60 horses in stalls...maybe hitched...no power to see and fire roaring down on you?

tough call


45 posted on 12/06/2017 4:17:23 PM PST by EBH ( May God Save the Republic)
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To: Getready

See #44. Cleared brush is NO guarantee in a wind driven wild fire.


46 posted on 12/06/2017 4:18:13 PM PST by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: BenLurkin

I think whats not being told is terrorist arsonists are using drones to drop incendiary device’s.


47 posted on 12/06/2017 4:19:04 PM PST by Daniel Ramsey (Thank YOU President Trump, finally we can do what America does best, to be the best)
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To: wardaddy

“Btw

Santa Fe is not as comfortable for conservatives as back in my youth of the 50s 60s and 70s when it was a cowboy town with Indians and art

Now it’s not hospitable to our kind”

No shit. You mean all the gray haired aging hippie democrats with pony tails?


48 posted on 12/06/2017 4:19:37 PM PST by Bonemaker (White Southerners have been under attack since 1860.)
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To: Fiji Hill

“Incidentally, they caught the arsonist.”

California...probation.


49 posted on 12/06/2017 4:23:30 PM PST by Bonemaker (White Southerners have been under attack since 1860.)
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To: Fiji Hill

I wonder who is going to catch these arsonists?


50 posted on 12/06/2017 4:23:41 PM PST by Chickensoup (Leftists today are speaking as if they plan to commence to commit genocide against conservatives.)
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To: crz
All they had to do was call the ASPCA-or ask some ranchers and they would have seen to it that those animals were taken out.

You don't get it. There was NO time to do anything but run. Those fires were swallowing an acre A SECOND at points Monday night, when they started. That's a square mile EVERY 10 MINUTES. When firemen pound on your door at 4AM and tell you you have to run NOW, there's no calling the ASPCA to come with trucks. That said, far more horses were evacuated than were lost. A friend's horse is now at a nearby college.

51 posted on 12/06/2017 4:28:35 PM PST by Bubba Ho-Tep ("The rat always knows when he's in with weasels."--Tom Waits)
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To: Daniel Ramsey

“I think whats not being told is terrorist arsonists are using drones to drop incendiary device’s.”

Not new. Japanese did it with baloons in Oregon in WW2.


52 posted on 12/06/2017 4:29:31 PM PST by Bonemaker (White Southerners have been under attack since 1860.)
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To: Professional; dragnet2

"...Well said..."


Thank you. Those poor unfortunate folks deserve our sympathy.
Some absurd FReepers seem to think a simple 15-foot clearing will solve everything.

Our fellow Americans are in a very precarious situation. Fire can turn on a dime.
Other FReepers wisely understand a powerful fire can cross highways, rivers, and clearings in an instant...especially as winds increase.


53 posted on 12/06/2017 4:32:01 PM PST by Blue Jays ( Rock hard ~ Ride free)
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To: Blue Jays

Those folks will feel a burden of guilt for life. They are going to pay a heavy price for their loss. I can only imagine having lost a couple dogs and a cat during my life. Devastating to the family.


54 posted on 12/06/2017 4:35:19 PM PST by Professional
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To: Daniel Ramsey
I think whats not being told is terrorist arsonists are using drones to drop incendiary devices.

They don't need to. A gang of terrorists might read the Weather Channel website for predictions of Santa Ana winds. Just before one occurs, they can make hundreds of Dixie cup bombs--lighted cigarettes stuffed into matchbooks, each of which is then stuffed into a Dixie cup--then drive the roads through the hills and mountains of Southern California tossing them into the dry brush. The results could be catastrophic.

55 posted on 12/06/2017 4:58:14 PM PST by Fiji Hill
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To: wardaddy
I love the state especially Chama area......

I do, too. When I visited Chama in 1995, the local railroad featured steam locomotives--not just for the tourists, but also to haul freight. When a steam locomotive pulled some freight cars over a grade crossing, I felt like I was back in the 1920's.

56 posted on 12/06/2017 5:02:08 PM PST by Fiji Hill
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To: Regulator

The firemen may have stopped them from going down to the barn. Most people would turn them loose and I imagine these folks wanted to.


57 posted on 12/06/2017 5:06:44 PM PST by Himyar (Comes A Stillness)
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To: Fiji Hill
Incidentally, they caught the arsonist.

Sounds like a good candidate for a Cherokee execution... strip him naked, slit his skin all over, and tuck fatwood pine splinters into the cuts until he looks like a porcupine. Then light them up. Arsonist is so lucky to be born in this century.

58 posted on 12/06/2017 5:23:48 PM PST by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: Bonemaker

If there was no way to haul them out, I would have let them loose, and take their chances free. They would have come back I bet. Poor things.


59 posted on 12/06/2017 5:54:38 PM PST by virgil (The evil that men do lives after them)
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To: dragnet2

Read about the Peshtigo fire. That was a doozy.


60 posted on 12/06/2017 5:56:51 PM PST by virgil (The evil that men do lives after them)
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