Texan to the rescue

COSTA MESA — Krystal Redman raced out of her home Monday night last week, hopped into the trailer she had bought four days earlier and sped off to smoke-filled Santiago Canyon on a rescue mission.

The Texas native had no friends or relatives trapped in the wildfire areas, but she didn’t venture out to rescue human evacuees. As Redman maneuvered her trailer through neighborhoods tinted with flame, she and a friend roped horses, deer and other animals that wandered on the grounds their owners had fled. Some of the frightened creatures tried to flee Redman too, and they made so much noise on the drive back — and shook the walls of the trailer so much — that she didn’t even notice when she blew a tire.

Redman had no intention to quit, however. After a night scouring the canyon, the animal lover dropped her menagerie off at the Orange County Fairgrounds, which doubled as a shelter for horses and livestock after the wildfires began.

“A lot of them, you had to worry about getting kicked or getting bitten,” Redman said Wednesday at the Fairgrounds, where she has volunteered for the past week. “But you’re so focused on getting them out, you don’t even think about it.”

The Fairgrounds, which holds livestock year round, has served as an animal evacuation site in the past, but the past week brought the largest turnout in history.

More than 100 animals — including horses, donkeys, sheep, chickens, geese, Pygmy goats and llamas — have packed the farm area in the past 10 days, and Redman and other volunteers have worked around the clock to attend to their needs.

Those needs include food, water, fly masks, makeshift corrals and pens and sometimes just identification.

When Redman rescued animals from the yards in Santiago Canyon, some had collars or other accessories listing their owners’ names, but others had no markers.

Janie Walker, a state public safety officer who works at the Fairgrounds, said she spent the first few days last week fielding calls from people trying to find their animals.

By Wednesday, Walker and the volunteers had identified every animal, and a number of owners had stopped by the Fairgrounds to help with farm duties.

“What keeps us going after the first three days is when people say, ‘You’re doing an awesome job, and I wouldn’t want my horse anywhere else,’” Walker said.

A number of businesses in the area, including El Pollo Loco, Starbucs and Petco, donated food and supplies to the volunteers.

Jordan Hazen, a Marine from Camp Pendleton who left his base due to the fires, stopped by the Fairgrounds to help last week and has stayed ever since, sleeping in a trailer by the corrals.

The lance corporal grew up on a ranch in Kansas and said his family often diverted their animals to the local fairgrounds during prairie fires. When he realized he had time to volunteer last week, he called the Fairgrounds right away.

“I saw it on the news and said, ‘I’m not going to sit around and watch it burn,’” Hazen said.

MICHAEL MILLER may be reached at (714) 966-4617 or at [email protected].