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 ...
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...
Yep, a winner! That goes for the left coast, period.
Mother earth doesn't need human help, dontcha know? Liberals don't believe in forest management.
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.
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
See #44. Cleared brush is NO guarantee in a wind driven wild fire.
I think whats not being told is terrorist arsonists are using drones to drop incendiary device’s.
“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?
“Incidentally, they caught the arsonist.”
California...probation.
I wonder who is going to catch these arsonists?
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.
“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.
"...Well said..."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Read about the Peshtigo fire. That was a doozy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.