Waystation Ordered Closed

The Wildlife Waystation in Sunland-Tujunga, shut down last year during disputes with regulators, has been ordered closed to the public again for alleged fire code violations.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department has ordered the 120-acre rehabilitation camp to halt all tours and educational programs, and to stop taking in animals.

Fire inspectors also directed the celebrity-supported Waystation to move 29 lions from hillside cages.

Waystation director Martine Colette, who opened the sanctuary 26 years ago after working as a Hollywood costume designer, said Monday that the Fire Department made an impossible demand that she quickly install a 700,000-gallon water tank on the Angeles National Forest property.

She said the department’s order to relocate the lions within 24 hours “was just more of the unreasonableness we endured last year. . . . The county has to become part of the solution instead of the problem.”

Colette said she intends to comply with the Fire Department’s order and reopen.

The order said the hillside beneath the lion cages was in danger of collapsing, and the Waystation had failed to cut back brush and maintain a water reserve. Further details were not provided.

State Department of Fish and Game officials closed the Waystation to the public and barred it from accepting new animals in April 2000, saying it did not meet environmental and animal-caging standards.

The county Fire Department and the district attorney’s environmental crimes unit also filed claims last year against the Waystation and Colette. They alleged animal waste had been fouling creek beds, and an employee encampment lacked plumbing.

The state allowed the Waystation to open to the public again in December, but county inspections continued. An inspection last week led to the latest order.

The Waystation is home to about 1,000 animals, including some that were used in movies and research.