As Altadena’s Eaton fire still burns, wildlife evacuees find refuge in Orange County

All the way from Altadena to Huntington Beach, the first wave of wildlife refugees are finding sanctuary from the Eaton fire in the open arms, and pens, of the Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center.

Making the nearly 50-mile trek from the Pasadena Humane Society — now inundated with animals found scorched, injured and wandering the fire’s 14,117-acre footprint — a contingent of critters are coming in for treatment, says Debbie McGuire, the center’s executive director.

“They’re the lowest in priority. It has to be humans first, their properties, their pets and then the wildlife — that’s just the way it is, and we understand that,” McGuire said Friday.

Staff at the Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center treat a desert cottontail brought in days after the Eaton fire broke out in Altadena.

(Courtesy of Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center)

The day after the Eaton fire’s first flames were spotted the evening of Jan. 7, the Huntington Beach nonprofit began getting calls from Pasadena Humane, seeking sanctuary for affected animals.

First came a trio of Indian peafowl, whose cohorts roam in Altadena near the fire’s epicenter in Eaton Canyon and also in the neighboring cities of Pasadena, Arcadia and La Cañada Flintridge. All males, each bird presented its own injuries.

One had a broken leg, another came in with singed tail feathers and a third had somehow crushed its hip and had singed spots on its body.

“It probably hurt itself trying to escape the fire,” McGuire surmised of the third bird, which was later euthanized. “I can’t imagine what the animals are going through right now.”

A peacock rescued from Altadena’s Eaton fire is cleaned off by workers at the Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach.

(Courtesy of Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center )

In addition to the peacocks, Pasadena Humane employees sent over two desert cottontails (both of which died), a neonate raccoon that came in dead on arrival with its umbilical still attached and three Virginia opossums. A mourning dove rescued in Pacific Palisades arrived Sunday.

“We’re just trying to support [rescue organizations] so they can get the wildlife out and concentrate on helping people with their dogs, cats, birds and livestock,” McGuire said.

To assist the effort, California Department of Fish and Wildlife are in the early stages of creating an incident command for wild animals affected by the Eaton and Palisades fires, according to McGuire, who said the response is not dissimilar from an oil spill.

Rescuers at Huntington Beach’s Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center clean ash and soot from the feathers of a peacock rescued from Altadena on Jan. 8.

(Courtesy of Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center)

First, an animal’s fur, feathers or scales must be cleared off with wet rags to remove the toxic ash, soot and debris that has covered it and its eyes, ears and nostrils cleared out. Then, rescuers can check for and treat injuries, flesh wounds and other problems, McGuire said.

Wildfire evacuee admissions to the Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center were relatively quiet Friday afternoon, but animal rescuers know the census is bound to ramp up as people gain entrance to their homes and properties.

In neighborhoods built among wildland-urban interface zones, it might not be uncommon for returning residents to find injured, trapped or hungry predators, pushed out of their natural habitats by the blaze.

“As people get back to their homes, they might find wildlife out there, and they’re going to be scared and hungry,” McGuire said. “If they’re injured or sick, they’re going to hide.”

Once an incident command is established in Los Angeles County, the animals being kept at the Huntington Beach refuge will be transported once more until they are rehabilitated. In the meantime, the Wetland & Wildlife Care Center will continue to harbor them.

The center is accepting donations in support of its care efforts at wwccoc.org.

Three Indian peafowl came into Huntington Beach’s Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center from the Eaton fire, courtesy of the Pasadena Humane Society.

(Courtesy of Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center)