Phelan exotic animal sanctuary may have to move 200+ animals amid Bridge fire

An exotic animal sanctuary in Phelan that is home to hundreds of animals could be forced to evacuate as the Bridge fire continues to grow.

Forever Wild Exotic Animal Sanctuary houses more than 200 animals, including tigers, venomous snakes, monkeys, birds of prey, reptiles, a lion and a bear, said Arianna Almquist, a senior keeper.

As of Wednesday, Sept. 11, the part of Phelan where the sanctuary is located was under an evacuation warning, from Highway 138 east to Baldy Mesa Road and Phelan Road south to Sayle Road.

By evening, the Bridge fire had grown to more than 50,000 acres.

But the skies were brighter Wednesday compared to the day before, when Almquist said they were dark orange by around 2 p.m.

And there wasn’t as much ash falling Wednesday.

That’s given staff and volunteers at the sanctuary hope that they’ll be able to stay where they are. But Almquist said they’re still preparing for an evacuation order just in case.

Because of smoke in the area, small animals were moved inside and all volunteers have been wearing masks for protection. Misters are on to keep the animals cool.

If the fire moves toward the area, firefighters would come to the sanctuary and use multiple fire hydrants on the property to try and keep the fire away so that the animals can stay.

But if the animals need to be moved, Almquist said the sanctuary has trailers, shift cages, staff and 15 to 20 volunteers ready to help.

Smaller animals, like porcupines, have already been moved into crates, so they could easily be loaded into trucks and taken to other facilities.

It would take a larger effort to move the sanctuary’s 10 to 12 big cats. Around five people would be needed to get each cat into a shift cage. It requires patience, Almquist said, because many of the cats are resistant to enclosed spaces. Each trailer can fit two of the shift cages.

“We would hope that, in this situation, our cats would be a little bit easier,” Almquist said. When staff were cleaning the cats earlier in the day, she said they seemed calm and as if they could sense they should take it easy on their caretakers. She hoped that would continue if they needed to evacuate.

It would take about three to four hours to move all the animals, she said, likely to other sanctuaries or to properties their veterinarian recommended.

The sanctuary has moved small animals in the past, but Almquist knew of no time it ever had to evacuate the larger ones.

In the past 24 hours, they’ve seen an outpouring of support from the community.

People showed up throughout the day on Wednesday, bringing crates, hamster water bottles and other supplies. At one point, the sanctuary had to ask community members to stop donating crates, because they didn’t have enough room to store them all.

But, Almquist said, “We would’ve been way more stressed without all of their help.”