The L.A. Wildfires: On the Ground

Going to Los Angeles to see how to help, and telling you how you can help.

Three days ago I wrote about the L.A. wildfires. I mentioned that I hadn’t been in the thick of them but had watched them, like everyone else, on social media and TV.

But over the weekend, that all changed. Sam and I were in San Diego visiting my brother, and we decided that we had a duty to help if we could – and we could. We rented a car and drove up to the city to help out with wildfire relief efforts, specifically those having to do with people’s pets.

Sam and I got to L.A. on Saturday. We didn’t know what to expect – we made a stop at Lowe’s to pick up P100 level respirator masks, as we were warned any smoke would likely be toxic. Upon arriving to LA, we could see the smoke, in the distance, but the air quality in the area we were in only warranted a N95 while outside. We looked into trying to access the directly affected areas, but unless you’re a firefighter, you can’t get close (as it should be). We did see smoke rising in the distance, which was eerie.

But the truth was that we weren’t there to see where the fire had been. We were there to meet and help the people and pets who had been displaced by it. We went to Burbank first to help Best Friends Animal Society transport dogs to their sanctuary in Kanab, UT. These were dogs that had been in L.A. waiting to be adopted, but that had to be moved to make room for the thousands of newly displaced dogs. “Displaced,” in this case, means a few different things. It means the dogs of the people who had to evacuate and couldn’t take their pets with them for whatever reason. It means pets that ended up fleeing the fires and would hopefully be reunited with their owners. Transporting dogs out of L.A., getting them into local foster homes, and adopting them out to families was and is the most critical current undertaking.

Later in the day, we went to the Pasadena Humane Society. We saw one woman dropping off a dog she found earlier that morning under the gardener’s truck. She didn’t know her name, but said she liked the eggs she fed her.

Another woman came to pick up her Doberman Pinscher mix that the shelter had been boarding while she figured out her housing since evacuating. He was noticeably shaken up by the ordeal, but was glad to be back with his mom.

There were also people coming by to drop off supplies, and not just for pets. The pet shelters are acting as pantries for people as well.

And finally, there were people coming in to foster dogs. It was a blur of all kinds of need and all kinds of assistance. That was Saturday.

On Sunday, we started with a run to Costco, where we picked up about five hundred pounds of supplies for dogs and cats—and for firefighters as well. It was a circus there. There were so many people shopping for water and bulk food and everything else you can imagine. From there, we went to the Labelle Foundation to drop everything off and divvy the supplies up into giveaway bags for firefighters. I learned that there’s a kind of complementary relationship between firefighters from the U.S. and firefighters from Australia and New Zealand. Americans work their fire season and they work ours. There are approximately 4,000 firefighters staying in an operations camp at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

Finally, we went to a veterinary clinic. The vet was very good at keeping his composure in dealing with all the chaos suddenly at his front door. People are nervous about their pets – some were coming in with smoke inhalation, burns, conjunctivitis, and more.

We met one woman who came in with her dog “Bubba”, and told us that other than Bubba, “I have nothing left.” She got out her phone and we thought she was going to show us a picture of a house turned to ash. But it was a photo of four bins in the corner of a hotel room. The impact of the ordinary photo took a second to sink in. That was all she had left. Another guy arrived with two big Huskies. His neighbors had to relinquish them to evacuate, and he stepped up to foster them.

What does this all mean? It’s hard to say except that it means everything all at once: people in need, animals in need, an uncertain future. Over the weekend, we set up a GoFundMe fundraiser to support animal welfare organizations in LA. We haven’t decided exactly who it will support yet—we will work with GoFundMe to vet organizations and distribute the money. We put the fundraiser up with an initial goal of $50,000, and as of Sunday night it had more than doubled that goal. Help if you can, through our initiative or others. We’re well aware that we’re at the beginning of a long process. People and their pets will need help for months to come, at least.