see the story of the fire part one here: https://chimpsnw.org/2012/08/the-story-of-the-fire-part-1/
As we were keeping an eye on the fire on the ridge above, a truck pulled up in the driveway. It was Brad Rorem and his two sons, who were staying in the family cabin on the ridge (Brad was quoted in this article). Brad’s parents are supporters of the sanctuary and we knew which cabin belonged to them. We stood watching the spot where the cabin sat. There was so much smoke and flames from trees igniting, all of us thought the cabin was gone (we saw the next day that it was still standing, but houses around it had burned down).
Soon, fire trucks pulled up in our driveway. Kay from the Kittitas County Fire Department was in charge and immediately assessed our situation and began to plan to defend the property. At one point, she looked at the chimp house building and said it looked good – there was a defensible space around the building that would allow the trucks to get around and do their job.
Time really became distorted at this point.
More fire trucks arrived, the smoke started to get thicker, we continued to water the grounds around the chimp house, and soon Kay told us we’d need to evacuate. I said we wanted to leave one person with the chimps in the chimp building. There was never a question that person would be J.B.
photo above: looking towards our neighbor’s property to the east, the smoke and flames are getting closer. With the sight of flames that close, it was clear we were going to be forced to test of our fire policy plan.
I put our cats and dog in the car. Elizabeth, Jackie and I looked at each other. None of us wanted to leave. We are all caregivers and leaving our seven chimpanzee friends who we’ve vowed to care for was not easy. But, it was part of our policy and it was the smart thing to do. J.B. could stay with the chimps and make sure they were doing okay and the firefighters would not have to worry about extra humans to protect.
A lot of people have asked why we didn’t evacuate the chimps, and we can explain that in more detail later, but the short answer is that, even under the best of circumstances, evacuating seven chimpanzees would have taken hours, and we had nowhere near that amount of time. (UPDATE: read a full explanation of why we didn’t evacuate the chimpanzees in the Why We Stayed blog post written by J.B., Director of Operations.)
Elizabeth, Jackie and I took radios, got in our respective cars, and drove down the driveway, turning left and pulling over in different spots on Highway 10 a few miles down the road.
I found a spot where I could still see the building pretty clearly. Our cats in the back of the car were meowing and our dog was trying to find a small space within the car to hide. I was constantly on the radio with J.B., my husband who I had just left in the path of a fire.
There were things I could see that he couldn’t and vice versa. He was keeping me, Elizabeth and Jackie updated on what was happening as best he could on the radio while also texting and talking to Sarah on the phone and talking to the chimpanzees, who were possibly as quiet as they’ve ever been in their lives.
There were moments when I was really scared, but I could see the helicopters dropping water on the sanctuary property as well as our neighbor’s property. I could see the fire trucks around the chimp house, and I could hear J.B.’s voice on the radio telling us he and the chimps were okay. I barely gave a thought to our personal possessions in the house where we had lived for three years.
photo above: flames and smoke get closer to the sanctuary property. Photo taken from Highway 10 below the sanctuary property.
photo above: one of the helicopters dropping water near the greenhouse structure of the chimp building. Firefighters in the foreground. Photo taken from Highway 10 below below the sanctuary property. The chimps and J.B. were inside the chimp house.
Part 3, from Sarah’s perspective, coming soon…
UPDATE: Read Part 3
Kim McAndrews says
Blessings of safety and comfort to my human and chimpanzee friends at the Sanctuary. You are all amazing and inspirational. Your dedication is astounding. Love, love, love and continued protection to all of you.
Dan Smith says
Simply speechless and very grateful that all involved are physically unharmed.
Margaret and Karen says
Our love to you all, always.
Cindy says
It is amazing what reserves we have inside of ourselves (human, chimp, anyone) that can be tapped in dire situations, the presence of mind to hold something together when the scariest seems to be happening. Just like Debbie mentioned on FB your pictures bring tears to my eyes too, for enumerable reasons. Thanks so much for writing and sharing, it’s healing for all of us. Your dedication and love is off the charts and I (and I think I can speak for the collective we) honor and love you now and always.
Amy M says
I’m reading this knowing that everyone is safe but I’m still getting upset just imagining what it was like for you!8S48
Kathy Cochran says
You tell such a dramatic and heart-rending story, you should sell it to Hollywood to raise funds for the chimps! Seriously. I very much admire both your dedication and courage, and I am especially thankful for JB standing by but recognize you as well for the courage to leave while watching from a distance.
Brenna says
I don’t know what to say. It feels like a bad nightmare. I can’t imagine how you, the ones who are there, are feeling. Thank you all, every single person, for keeping our little family safe. Love and strength to you all.
Kaite says
I’m so glad you are all safe. My next thought is this: There must be a plan, if we had enough money to throw at it, and enough time to plan for it, that if this ever happened again we could evacuate the seven chimps safely in less time. There has to be a way, even if it isn’t a perfect way, but just a way to get the chimps to safety quickly. Even if it means having secure evacuation vehicles, packed and ready to go, sitting empty for years at a time, just in case they are ever needed. To me, the alternative cannot be a viable long term option. There must be a way with enough money and support, that we could evacuate the chimps quickly, even if not perfectly….is there? I can’t stand the thought of what could have happened last week if things hadn’t gone the way they did. I mean, even if it means just letting them loose and hoping for the best so they could at least try to run to safety, and maybe some of them could survive. (obviously that would be only when the structure they were locked in began to actually burn down!) But I can’t stand the thought of them locked up and unable to even try to survive if it came to that. Is there a way we can make sure this never happens again? And if so, what do you need to make it possible?
-K
J.B. says
Hi Kaite –
I completely understand your desire to find a plan that would keep the chimps 100% safe in a situation like this. Let me start by saying that we are fortunate, as a relatively small sanctuary, to even be able to consider evacuating the chimps. For some of the larger sanctuaries, rapid evacuation would be out of the question for all but a handful of the residents.
Still, evacuating chimpanzees safely is something that takes time, no matter what your situation is. The chimps must first be moved to an area of the building that would allow you to connect a transfer cage or, alternatively, an area that would provide a safe environment for anesthesia. At CSNW, this area is a series of four smaller interconnected rooms that we call the Front Rooms. After the chimps are shifted, transfer cages must be moved from our storage area behind the barn to the chimp facility. The chimps that are cooperative may be loaded into transfer cages one at a time without anesthesia. Those who are not cooperative (most if not all of them) must be manually injected or darted with an anesthetic. Chemical anesthetics take up to ten minutes to take effect and the chimps must be isolated and darted individually so that one chimpanzee is not waking up while you are going in to remove another. After all the chimps are loaded into transfer cages, the cages must be loaded into a trailer and secured (if the chimps are anesthetized the cages can be loaded and secured beforehand). Typically, the transport truck would not leave until all the chimpanzees on board have recovered from anesthesia, so that a medical emergency (like respiratory depression) does not occur on the road, but in the face of a dire emergency this protocol could be ignored.
While doing all of this you would need to weigh the risk of transporting them against the risks of staying. If the fire overtook the sanctuary while the trailer was still in the driveway, the chimps would be at even greater risk. Considering that we had less than an hour’s notice before the fire overtook the property, there is no way that I would have attempted to move them.
Some emergencies cannot be avoided. In these cases, proper planning, construction, and maintenance are the only things that will help. Sanctuaries in the southeast must be prepared for hurricanes, those in the plains states must be prepared for tornadoes, and those on the west coast must be built to withstand earthquakes. For CSNW, wildfires were part of the planning process when Keith and the original Board of Directors were designing the facility. In addition, the county requires a plan for “defensible space”, which is the area around the building that slows or impedes the fire and provides a safe space for firefighters to work in.
The chimp facility is built mostly of concrete, with cementitious siding and a metal roof above the chimps. The exterior is designed to withstand brush fires and stray sparks. Inside the chimp areas there is very little in the way of combustible material. Still, nothing is 100% fire proof, so our fire plan includes a scenario where the interior of the building would be overtaken by smoke or flames. In this case, we couldn’t let the chimps run free because it would endanger the lives of the men and women working to protect the sanctuary. However, we would let them back out into the greenhouse, which would allow them some movement away from an interior fire and some chance to avoid the smoke that would accumulate inside the closed building.
This was the day that we hoped would never happen, but given where we are located, we knew it could. The chimp facility survived due to the firefighters’ efforts, smart planning, good building codes, and a little bit of good fortune. Relocating the chimps to a safe location would have been great, but it would not have been possible in such a short amount of time.
In the coming weeks we will be analyzing our response and determining what went well and what we could have done better. We will undoubtedly be exploring new protocols and equipment based on what we experienced in our real life trial by fire that could help us be even better prepared for future emergencies.