Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Here is the link to the King 5 story that just aired: http://bit.ly/PyfMes
and here’s a photo of that sad relic from the fire:
We are so grateful to the firefighters for all they did making sure everyone was safe and for all of our volunteers and supporters who have gotten us through the last few weeks in so many ways. I think the burned but still smiling troll doll will be a reminder of the fire for years to come.
We opened the door to let the chimps back onto Young’s Hill for the first time since the Taylor Bridge Fire hit the sanctuary property on August 13th. Gary Chittim and Ken Jones from King 5 were here to do a story today. You can see footage of the chimps’ excitement and steps out on the hill on King 5 News at 6:30pm in Seattle and online after the story airs (we’ll be sure to share the link once it’s on the web).
The chimpanzees haven’t been asking to go out much since the fire, which is a surprise, since they generally “remind us” in the mornings to open the door by standing by it and getting our attention or luring us over and sticking their fingers through the caging where the door opens.
J.B. and volunteers Brian and John have worked to clean up the hill by removing burned logs, reinforcing a damaged fence post, and dragging (tilling, in effect) the charred ground that covered half of the enclosure. J.B. found a sad relic on the hill that Gary Chittim will show on the King 5 broadcast tonight.
All of the staff joined in a final check of the hill yesterday afternoon so we were ready and anxious to give the chimps access after setting up a breakfast forage.
The chimps mostly stuck to the unburned areas.
Below is a photo of Jamie bringing a wrench out with her on to the hill. Maybe J.B. forgot to fix something?
And here she is with the burned ground in the background:
Annie did inspect the burned grass a bit:
And Missy ventured into the starkness of the top of the hill that was charred in the fire. You can see a ring of green grass coming up – that’s where the underground irrigation lines run to water the bamboo. We lost about half of the smaller bamboo in the fire:
Last week, volunteer Connie was here when it was about 100 degrees and we were working on ways to keep the chimps hydrated. It was a bigger concern than normal since the fire had caused a not-pleasant burned rubber smell to the well water, making us turn the chimps’ drinking spigots off. Staff decided to fill up plastic bins with bottled water and a bit of gatorade, put them in front of the fencing and give the chimps big tubes to drink out of. This resulted in a bunch of tubes and other various things that the chimps (mostly Jamie) had put in the water. So, enter Connie’s brilliance. She made some holes in the lid for the bin that the tubes just fit through.
Behold:
The awful burned smell in the water is not present any longer, but we’re waiting to get an all clear after sending a sample to the health department, so I used Connie’s invention today to provide a little afternoon refreshment.
Here’s Missy drinking:
The photo below is Annie, Jody and Foxie (left to right)
Foxie (pictured below) REALLY slurps while she’s drinking, as you may recall from this video from a few months ago
In addition to making direct donations to the sanctuary and sending us gift cards to Safeway, Lowes, Costco, and Home Depot, there are a few other ways that you can help the sanctuary.
1) Cruise Lake Washington, September 15 at noon. We have just a handful of spaces still available for this exclusive cruise. Spend a few hours seeing the sights and celebrity homes on Lake Washington, enjoy yummy food and drink, and meet some of the staff and board of the sanctuary. It’s a $250 donation per person, and 100% of that goes straight to the chimps because our supporter Denny Green is donating all the costs. Please contact [email protected] if you’d like to attend or need more information.
2) Buy prints of watercolors of Missy and Negra painted by Margaret Parkinson. Margaret is selling a select number of matted 8×10″prints of the two paintings below for $100 each, with ALL of the money going to the sanctuary. She is also offering the original of the Negra watercolor. It is 11×14″ on paper and is matted and framed for $400. You can email Margaret at [email protected] if you’re interested in owning one of these beautiful prints. It is Missy’s birthday today, so you can help us celebrate her day by buying a print of her!
3) Donate to the Sanctuary Century Bike Ride. The Sanctuary Century is a 100 mile (century) bike ride fundraiser in Portland, Oregon to benefit Out To Pasture Farm Sanctuary, Hope Animal Sanctuary, and us – Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. Like the Sanctuary Century page on Facebook and donate directly on their Firstgiving page.
Thanks for all of your support!
King5 broadcast a story on the sanctuary last night that you can watch here: http://bit.ly/OC11Wc
To fill in a bit of information: in addition to the incredible work of the firefighters, the chimp house was safe because it was designed to withstand fire and because there was a defensible perimeter around the building, allowing the firefighters to do their job easily. There was no time to evacuate seven chimpanzees and we knew this situation might arise, which is why we made the decisions we did about the building construction and the perimeter around the building. (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.)
We were also lucky because helicopters were nearby due to another fire, which allowed them to respond very quickly – this is probably what saved the caregiver house and the other older structures on the property that were not designed from the beginning with fire-resistant materials. The sanctuary property is very close to the river on the other side of Highway 10. The easy access to water meant the helicopters could quickly refill their buckets. And because we were very close to the beginning of the fire, it hadn’t gained the momentum that it had later on. So, it was a combination of having a safe building for the chimps, being prepared with a plan, having a quick response from the local Kittittas County Fire Department (we love you!), and a bit of luck that left not only the chimps safe, but also all of the structures standing on the property, even though the caregiver house did catch fire on the roof and one side (see photo below):
Speaking of luck and a great response, below are a couple of photos of the mop-up crew from Snohomish County. These three guys have been looking for and taking care of hot-spots and flare-ups on and around the property for the last few days. They took their lunch break yesterday at the chimp house, where Jamie “baptized” them with some cooling water (see the water droplets in the second photo).
The sanctuary sends big thanks to all of the firefighters for their continued and tireless work on the Taylor Bridge fire. We hope the fire gets under control soon with no further loss of property.
Looking towards the charred earth on Young’s Hill:
The view on Young’s Hill the day after the fire (luckily the structures survived!):
Snohomish firefighters watching volunteer Connie serve Negra and Jody lunch:
You can help the sanctuary by making a monetary donation that will allow us to continue to clean up the property and take care of the chimps. You can also send us gift cards for Safeway, Costco, Lowes and Home Depot. Just mail them to: CSNW, PO Box 952, Cle Elum, WA 98922
The Cle Elum Seven Chimpanzees have been through a lot in their lives – some were captured in Africa as infants, most were used as breeders and had their children taken away, and all were used for biomedical testing. Our mission is provide them with the best care within our power – thank you so much for contributing to their continued well-being!
John Himmel of WSDOT took the original photo from below that shows the burned areas all around the sanctuary property. We added the labels. All of the black is where the fire hit. You can see that the fire circled around below the chimp house towards the driveway.
Even all of us who have been on the property since Monday find this image sobering.
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
