Habitat for Horses Provides Disaster Assistance for Wildfire Evacuations

May 16, 2007 - The wildfires that consumed so much of the State of Florida have kept the Habitat for Horses Disaster Response Team members busy since last week.  The North Florida wildfires in Bradford, Baker and Columbia counties were out of control and overtaking hundreds of acres requiring mandatory evacuations not only due to the fires, but also from the heavy layer of smoke.

The Habitat for Horses Disaster Response Team leaders, Chris and Dale Dunn, both county CERT members and liaisons for the Florida SART, jumped into action mode and contacted the other Habitat for Horses Disaster Team members to assist in evacuating horses from harms way.  Over 1,000 Federal, State and Local fire and rescue personnel assisted the Florida Division of Forestry in over 50 counties.  National Guard helicopter crews from Georgia and South Carolina supported the efforts. 

In Bradford County the team assisted in moving 40 Arabian horses and 9 Arabian foals.  Chris Dunn said, “The foals, some just days old with their huge beautiful eyes full of fear, allowed themselves to be lifted by Dale into the trailer beside their mommas for the transport to a safe place.” 

The thick smoke caused the roads to be closed in the rural Bradford County area, requiring residents to drive long detours to get to their homes. With the wildfire’s imminent approach, 1,000 residents in Bradford County were evacuated while the fires consumed what lie in their path. Drought conditions and high winds fueled the fire, causing it to jump the newly-dug fire lines, going through the treetops, igniting the dry Bugaboo Scrub marsh and roaring from Georgia into Florida. 

The Habitat for Horses team members assisted in Baker County in north Florida with evacuation of horses to designated areas.  Everyone expresses a special “thank you” to Randy at Central States Feed in Lake City for their assistance in providing feed for the displaced horses.  The 180,000 acre wildfire continued to rage through Baker County and crossed into Columbia County requiring another 1,000 residents to evacuate from their homes to safe areas.  

On Friday, Chris received a call from the Department of Agriculture asking if her team could be on standby to move horses and livestock in Columbia County since the fire was headed toward Lake City and the major intersections of Interstate 10 and Interstate 75.  “The smoke from the fire was so thick that visibility was at times, only a quarter of a mile, Chris stated. “It was difficult to see a car 10 feet in front of you, causing many accidents on the interstates – traffic was at a standstill in the surrounding areas in the path of the fire.  Haze from the fires traveled as far south as the Miami area, about 340 miles away.”

By Sunday, Mother’s Day - one of the most traveled times of the year - the dense smoke from the wildfire had authorities shut down Interstate 10, Interstate 75, and the adjacent U.S. 441 in Columbia County and Lake City.  Traffic was routed north bound to Interstate 95 on the east coast of Florida.  Late Sunday afternoon, a fire got out of control in Nassau County north of Jacksonville and moved through the marshlands shutting down Interstate 95 both ways in that vicinity.  The intersection of north I-95 and I-295 in Jacksonville was gridlocked by traffic as you could not go west or north.  As Chris learned of this fire from, Teri Rehkopf, the HfH southeast teams communication coordinator, she immediately sent an email and called fellow horse people offering support assistance for possible evacuation from this new fire.  Luckily, the strong winds on Monday combined with the rising humidity, allowing firefighters to contain the north Jacksonville fire by the next morning and eliminating the need to evacuate.

Habitat for Horses members were on tractors mowing the tall dry grasses in pastures and fields in an effort to reduce the fuel for the fires to expand further.  So far only one home was destroyed in Bradford; in Walton County, 13 homes had minor damage and 6 had major damage.  As of this writing the Bradford County fire is 90% contained.  Sunday night brought minor rain showers to these areas, and the increase in humidity helped the weary firefighters to contain the fires for a short time on Monday.  A cold front brought back the dry weather and high winds on Tuesday and the fire spread rapidly again. The Columbia County “Bugaboo Scrub Fire” is 50% contained and 1,000 people are evacuated and other adjacent communities are on standby evacuation. 

Operating under the control of the FLSART (Florida State Animal Response Team), Habitat for Horses Disaster Response Team continues to stand by with trailers in tow to haul and house the evacuated horses and be there to assist in any way they can.