Strong wind predictions cause more fire concerns for Los Angeles and firefighters are expected to be battling Coromandel vegetation fire for several days. Video / NZ Herald, AFP
A Los Angeles resident had been reunited with his dog five days after his home was destroyed in a wildfire.
Casey Colvin, whose property was reduced to rubble in the Palisades Fire last week, returned to its ruins to search for Oreo, a Pomeranian, despite fearing his pet had died.
Video footage of the reunion on Sunday shows the dog, sooty and dishevelled, suddenly emerging from a neighbour’s driveway, prompting Colvin to scream: “You’re alive, you’re alive.”
The BEST news! Fire victim Casey Colvin, whose home burned down in the Palisades Fire, just found and reunited with his dog, Oreo, who spent 5 nights surviving amidst the rubble ❤️ @NBCNewspic.twitter.com/rAuJJk3pfa
Colvin then runs around the street cheering: “Oh thank you Jesus, oh thank you God” as tears stream down his face.
He had been away at work when the fire approached his home and evacuation orders were issued, leaving him unable to get back to rescue his two pets.
Colvin’s other dog, Tika Tika Tika, was rescued by a firefighter but Oreo disappeared before the house burned down, NBC News reported.
A ‘missing dog’ appeal was put out by Casey Colvin before he was reunited with Oreo. Photo / @LizKreutzNews
Elsewhere in the worst-hit areas of the city, many owners who managed to flee with pets have been forced to part with their animals after being left homeless.
Around 550 animals have been dropped off at the Pasadena Humane animal shelter since the wildfires began ripping through the Los Angeles area last Tuesday morning.
Arthur Jones tried to remain calm as he handed his pet chihuahua mix Foxy to a volunteer at the centre on Sunday, not knowing when he would see it again.
He told the Telegraph that the thought of being apart from the pet, a member of his family for 12 years, was “devastating”.
However, following five days spent living in motels after being forced to flee his family’s Altadena home at 4am on Wednesday, Jones said they decided Foxy could not cope with the upheaval.
“Her anxiety is super bad right now, we just don’t want to try to keep her with us while we’re moving around,” the 22-year-old said as his mother watched tearfully from a nearby car.
“We’re all devastated, but we have to do what we have to do ... the lady said we’re always able to come back to visit her if we can.”
Inside the centre on Sunday, rows of metal cages were filled with confused dogs desperately barking for their owners.
The shelter is also housing cats, rabbits, birds and an enormous tortoise called Huckleberry.
Staff said many owners had been coming to visit their pets and comfort them. They included a family who lost their home to the fire and were seen bringing boiled chicken for Bruno, their cane corso - an Italian breed of mastiff - to eat.
Kent Schmedes, a retired sound engineer, was among those saying emotional goodbyes to their pets outside the shelter on Sunday.
The 64-year-old initially thought that his Altadena home, where he had lived for 30 years, had survived the Eaton Fire when he returned to the area on Wednesday morning to find it still standing.
However, 25 minutes later he received a call to say it had caught fire and burnt to cinders amid hurricane-level winds.
Schmedes is now living with his sister – where his beloved dogs Max and Theo are not allowed – as he tries to work out the next steps for himself and his girlfriend.
He said: “Those dogs, they really don’t listen to anybody but her [his girlfriend].
“They’ve never been leashed, never been caged, the only thing they ever do is get their nails clipped, and so now they’re in this live event and I know they’re panicking but I can’t go and sleep in a cage with them.”
Schmedes said that although it would be sad to be apart from them, he had “bigger fish to fry”.
He added: “I can go into a corner and get in a foetal position and suck my thumb, but it’s not gonna help me any, you know, so I gotta be upbeat.”
The shelter has also been dealing with stray animals – some of which might have become separated from their owners as they fled the flames – which have been found with severe injuries such as burns and smoke inhalation.
Kevin McManus, the communications manager for Pasadena Humane, said: “Our animal ICU has been basically full for the entirety of the time.
“Now that animal control is actively in the area that has been impacted ... I hope we’re going to find living, stray animals who just somehow avoided disaster ... those are the ones who are going to need more critical care.”
While most of the pets in the ICU remain unclaimed, one owner was reunited with her tabby cat after she shared a picture online.
Many dead animals have also been brought to the shelter.
McManus added: “Once there’s a little bit of calm in this storm, people can come in ... if there’s a microchip, we’re able to get in touch with the person, if not we are holding those animals, and that way if people come and they find that we have a black cat, that is their black cat, at least, there’s some sense of closure.”
Around 40km away in Marina Del Rey, veterinarian Annie Harvilicz has been taking in scores of animals in a makeshift shelter.
She moved her practice, Animal Wellness Centers, into a new veterinary site on December 30 but had not given up the lease for her old hospital across the road.
When her brother, whose house in the Pacific Palisades was destroyed in the fires, called and asked if she could look after their pet rabbit and cat, Harvilicz posted on Facebook to say she could help others with their animals.
She said requests then came “pouring in”, with a woman turning up with 10 cats and another with around 15 dogs on the first day alone.
Harvilicz said: “People were saying: ‘Can you take my pig?’ Yes, I will take a pig. ‘Will you take my tortoise?’ Yes, I will take your tortoise.”
Now her former veterinary site has been repurposed, with every space from its old pharmacy to the X-ray room filled with pets. Donations have also been piling up.
Harvilicz said she had taken in more than 70 animals, although many have since been fostered.
In her new facility, she and her team have also been treating animals injured by the fires.
She said: “We have a dog over there now that we think was away from the fire and was hit by a car because they had a broken leg ... we did surgery yesterday to fix the broken leg.
“We did have somebody who was like an evacuee come in and the dog had smoke inhalation. We haven’t had any burns yet, which is very scary, because it means, I don’t know, like maybe we just haven’t discovered the burn patients yet.
