When a wildfire roared toward Summerland, B.C., staff from the Interior Wildlife Rehabilitation Society had to evacuate about 30 animals from the facility in an hour.
Eva Hartmann, founder of the sanctuary, said the centre was destroyed — but the animals have all been safely relocated to a wildlife centre in Kamloops, B.C., about 220 kilometres northeast.
They include bats, skunks, a porcupine, a baby beaver named Poppy, two otters, 14 water birds and three turtles, said Ryan Cope, a volunteer.
“So, it was a bit of a Noah’s Ark menagerie getting them out, and they really only had an hour to get out before the fire blew through the property,” said Cope, adding that it was chaotic to corral the birds to their respective kennels.
The ferocious Bald Range fire burning in British Columbia’s south Okanagan region has claimed one life and displaced more than 20,000 people, but its impacts go beyond human victims, with tens of thousands of farm animals, wildlife and pets also affected.
Among the thousands who fled over the weekend, many brought dogs, cats and even goats with them.
But some residents were also forced to leave animals behind, filling social media feeds with pictures of people trying to find lost animals or connect owners with their singed and injured pets retrieved from the fire zone.
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