BUSHFIRE AT THE SANCTUARY! Carol, our animal carer in charge today made an emergency call to Sanctuary manager Judy early this afternoon after hearing loud crackling noises that alerted her to a bushfire that was spreading from the jungle area and fields just east of our pig garden and north of the dog kennels. The pigs were downwind and in its path and were already starting to be engulfed in smoke. When I arrived a few minutes later, I could see five or six men rushing around the outskirts of the flame at the valley floor, frantically trying to douse the flames. As I raced into The Sanctuary, Kate was calmly taking control of our young volunteers, keeping them busy well away from the fire. Carol quickly got the pigs to safety and then set up a water supply so we could tackle the flames closest to the pigs. We were able to put out several small fires before Judy arrived with the local fire brigade, who came with a truck and hoses to douse the rest. Amazingly, the men I saw battling the flames earlier had managed to put out the biggest fire just outside our property, which was threatening to sweep further downwind towards some houses. It was quite scary and a lot of hard work, but Im proud of The Sanctuary staff for handling everything so well and keeping all our guests and animals safe. It was also great to see neighbours, workers, and firefighters all working together to save lives and keep damage to a minimum. The fire came after Judy received a warning that someone was planning to pay gangsters to hit us. Although we took the threat seriously enough report it to the police in order to discourage the threatener from doing anything to harm the animals, we feel this incident is not related, mostly because it happened during the day rather than at night. But we are still stepping up security and have accepted the local polices offer to increase patrols in our area. But, again, we believe these events are not related and the implied threats were merely expressed in frustration because we havent yet moved. Just another exciting and eventful day at The Sanctuary. ;)
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 08:11:20 +0000
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