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Agence France-Presse

Steve Cox pets and cuddles Ernie, his 10-year-old English bulldog, before leaving him at a shelter. Cox lost his home in California’s devastating wildfires, and now they have to part.
“Don’t you worry Ernie. I am not gonna let you down. We’ll come back for you,” Cox whispers.
He has been staying at a hotel but it doesn’t take pets. For a week, Cox tried to take care of Ernie in the back of his pickup truck.
But now, as Cox tries to get his life back on track, he thinks Ernie would get better care at one of three animal shelters in northern California’s Paradise area where the so-called Camp Fire has claimed 76 lives and left more than 1,200 unaccounted for.
In this rural area, which had many horses, one shelter is for large animals.

Then there are two small facilities where helpers are working with dogs, cats, chickens, rabbits, turtles and even swans.
Ernie is walking with a bit of trouble after an operation on an abscess in one of his front legs. Cox says the dog is lazy, though, so he thinks Ernie will adapt quickly to the separation by sleeping a lot.
The main shelter was set up in the city of Chico’s airport, near Paradise, where rescue and firefighting operations have been based.
Animals saved by firefighters are dropped off there to be cared for.


One woman arrives desperate, her hands trembling. She pulls out an envelope of photos of her cats and dogs.
“Please, let me in and see. I might find them,” she begs in a tearful voice.
When the fire began to threaten Paradise, Cox was headed home from the doctor with his wife. He could have stopped but instead kept going, to rescue Ernie and two other smaller dogs he has.
“They are family. I couldn’t just leave them. We had 10 minutes to leave,” he recalls.
California fires: in the ashes of Paradise, they sift for the victims with sieves
Cox, who lived there since 1973, said he lost two houses, and many pieces of furniture that his father had left him, in the blaze which virtually wiped the entire community from the map.

“I have a big question mark above my head. I don’t know what I’ll do,” he says, his face showing exhaustion.
The animal shelters are working with dozens of volunteers responsible for feeding, caring for and walking the animals.
Search for 1,276 missing as Donald Trump tours California fire zones
They also have volunteer veterinary technicians, including Marshall Riddle, who are responsible for treating them.
Many animals arrived at the shelters injured and burned.


“It’s never easy, but we have to make sure every animal is safe,” he says.
The most worrying cases were sent along to specialised clinics.
Although these are not the first shelters of their kind in the state regularly ravaged by wildfires, the blazes have never been so deadly.
“Butte County is always on fire,” said Karen Falconer of the North Valley Animal Disaster Group, which runs another of the shelters, in an old hospital in the town of Oroville.
There are about 430 animals, separated into zones. The dog section is barking noisily but the cat zone is quieter.

“We’ll take care of them as long as necessary,” Falconer said.
For Cox, the separation was just starting, while others were already rejoicing in reunion.
Little Eva’s face lit up when her six-month-old kitten Luke Skywalker – named for the Star Wars character – was handed over to her and her parents, Robert Pieper and his wife Brittany.
They had already searched in another shelter for their pet African tortoise named James Peterson.
The fire destroyed their house in Magalia, just outside Paradise.
Now, after days in a shelter and then a hotel, they were able to rent a flat where they could be with their pets and try to start over the life the wildfires had burnt beyond recognition.


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Natural disasters

Heartbreak and hope after California wildfires split families and their beloved pets

Animal Service staff and veterinarians tend to animals in the Oroville shelter, south of Paradise, California on November 16, 2018. - Pets are entrusted to 3 shelters set up in the neighboring areas of Paradise, epicenter of the fierce "Camp" fire that so far leaves 71 dead and more than 1,000 people missing. (Photo by Javier TOVAR / AFP) / TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY JAVIER TOVAR: California wildfire refugees find help with beloved pets

In this undated photo, pictures of rescued animals are posted at the "Lost and Found Fire Pets" kiosk by Carr Fire Pet Rescue and Reunification members in Redding, Calif. Volunteers continue to track and catch missing pets nearly two months after the fire was extinguished. (Courtesy of Stacey Jimenez via AP)

Chicken rescued from the fire are safe in the Oroville shelter, south of Paradise, California on November 16, 2018. - Pets are entrusted to 3 shelters set up in the neighboring areas of Paradise, epicenter of the fierce "Camp" fire that so far leaves 71 dead and more than 1,000 people missing. (Photo by Javier TOVAR / AFP) / TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY JAVIER TOVAR: California wildfire refugees find help with beloved pets

Steve Cox pets Ernie, his 10-year-old English bulldog, before handing him over to a shelter in Chico on November 16, 2018. - Pets are entrusted to 3 shelters set up in the neighboring areas of Paradise, epicenter of the fierce "Camp" fire that so far leaves 71 dead and more than 1,000 people missing. (Photo by Javier TOVAR / AFP) / TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY JAVIER TOVAR: California wildfire refugees find help with beloved pets

FILE- In this Aug. 9, 2018, file photo Loretta Root wipes her eyes while visiting the remains of her home in the Keswick area burned in a wildfire in Redding, Calif. More than 80 families who lost their homes in California’s deadly Carr Fire in July have learned weeks or months later that their dogs and cats had survived the deadly disaster. A network of about 35 volunteers, called Carr Fire Pet Rescue and Reunification, is responsible for many of the happy endings and continues to track and catch missing pets nearly two months after the fire was extinguished. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

Medical personnel evacuate patients and their pets. Photo: AP

Search for 1,276 missing as Donald Trump tours California fire zones

U.S. President Donald Trump looks at a map during a briefing with State officials after visiting the charred wreckage of Skyway Villa Mobile Home and RV Park in Paradise, in Chico, California, U.S., November 17, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis?

President Donald Trump looks at a map as he visits with first responders and local officials at an operations centre responding to the wildfires on Saturday. Photo: AP Photo

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World

United States & Canada

Rescued animals are being cared for at shelters after devastating California fire
Many animals arrived at the shelters injured and burned


Makeshift animal shelters are caring for hundreds of pets that were separated from their families in the devastating California fires.


United States

Heartbreak and hope after California wildfires split families and their beloved pets

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Rescued animals are being cared for at shelters after devastating California fire Many animals arrived at the shelters injured and burned

Rescued animals are being cared for at shelters after devastating California fire

Many animals arrived at the shelters injured and burned