Fire at OHA: October 2008

A controlled burn at neighboring Tilden Park burned over the hill into the OHA Upper pasture. (An annotated version of this video, describing the situation details, is in my favorites, below.) The CDC set up a fire line and tankers and a helicopter were called in to fight the fire. Luckily it was a cool day and on the edge of raining when the fire broke the lines.

An email went out to the OHA cooperative members and several members were called on a phone tree. Many members converged on the scene to move the horses to a lower and safer pasture.

When the fire began, several horses were already in or were moved, when the fire was first noticed, to the paddocks, Ring pasture and stalls. The rest of the herd needed to be moved away from the fire.

In addition to the halters that each member brought, a stock of halters (stored for just this kind of emergency) were put into play. The members took one or two horses each, haltered them and moved in a group to a lower pasture on our 200 acre lease.

The horses were released carefully and milled about in excitement from the helicopter noise and being relocated.

The horses will stay in the Lower pasture until the Park District and our landlord EBMUD allow us to move them back to the Upper pasture. OHA recently began establishing emergency procedures and this was an excellent exercise to practice fire safety. An annotated version describing the situation details is available at http://www.YouTube/OrindaHorsemensAssoc

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• horse
• pasture
• fire
• CDF
• herd
• rescue