No Way Out for Wildlife Waystation Inhabitants : Animal Preserve Prepares to Fight Fire

With the sun going down and the glow of an approaching brush fire coming up over the mountain ridge to the west of the Wildlife Waystation in Little Tujunga Canyon on Monday, the lions were roaring and the coyotes were howling in what is known around the animal preserve as the “Sunset Chorus.”

It was a sign that the nearly 1,000 animals on the 160-acre preserve in the Angeles National Forest were taking the threat of an approaching brush fire in stride. But while the animals kept their routine, the handlers, veterinarians and volunteers who care for them did not.

The 3,200-acre brush fire in nearby Pacoima Canyon forced operators of the Waystation, a private, nonprofit animal rehabilitation and relocation preserve, to prepare for a fire emergency.

The planning, while the fire was still nearly 2 miles and a mountain ridge away, was necessary because the animals of the Waystation cannot flee. The people who care for them said evacuation of the preserve is not feasible.

“We have to make our stand here,” said Martine Colette, founder and president of the 12-year-old Waystation about 4 1/2 miles north of Lake View Terrace on Little Tujunga Road.

“There is no way to move the animals,” Colette said. “It is logistically impossible and not in the best interests of the animals.”

The preserve provides a home for wild animals that have been abandoned or mistreated, and it prepares them for release into natural habitats or the custody of zoos. Most of the animals are large, ranging from lions, bears and jaguars to cattle and horses, and Waystation officials said that is why evacuation is unfeasible.

“We have 150 of the big cats here alone,” said Jan Brown, Waystation vice president. “There is really no way to evacuate the animals. We are miles into the canyon on a 2-lane road that the firefighting equipment also has to use. We can’t bring in a line of trailers to load the animals on.”

Instead of planning an evacuation Monday, the preserve went into the first stage of a three-stage fire preparedness schedule. Many of the preserve’s 80 volunteers and employees were called in; free-ranging animals were moved to cages, and firefighting equipment was readied, Brown said.

Brown said the preserve’s fire equipment--some owned and some volunteered--includes earthmoving equipment that could be used to dig trenches to cut off a fire line, as well as tank trucks that have been filled with water. The preserve will also have the help of Los Angeles County and U.S. Forest Service firefighters, should the fire hit, officials said.

It was unknown Monday whether any of the preparations would be needed. Throughout the day, Colette and other preserve workers drove to an overlook above the Waystation to monitor the fire’s progress. Late in the day, Forest Service spokesman Robert Brady said the fire remained out of control and was moving in the direction of the animal compound, although it was 1 1/2 to 2 miles away.

If authorities determine that the preserve is likely to be hit by the fire line, the Waystation will move to a Stage 2 alert, Brown said. At that point, non-essential personnel would leave the compound and veterinarians and handlers would be ready to tranquilize panicky animals in an effort to prevent them from injuring themselves and others.

Brown said Stage 3 would occur if the fire actually hit the preserve and had to be fought.

“If it gets to that . . . I don’t know,” she said. “We hope it doesn’t. But we will be ready.”