Chapter 10 I can’t answer messages fast enough

It started on July 6, with an idea and a Facebook post. When Lana Shields learned about the Gustafsen Lake fire near 100 Mile House, she immediately began thinking about the horses. “Honestly,” she said to me, “I love animals a lot more than I love people. And I really wanted to make sure that the horses were going to be okay.” Lana—a pretty woman with chestnut hair, a fringe of bangs and blue eyes—lives in Williams Lake. At the time she was the caretaker at the stampede grounds. She texted Tim Rolf and Court Smith, two directors of the Williams Lake Stampede Association, to ask if they would support her idea: “I said, ‘I would really like to open up the stampede grounds for people to bring their horses so that they’re safe. Would you be okay with that?’ And they were fantastic: ‘Oh yeah, absolutely. Just do whatever you need to do.’” She posted on Facebook:

July 6

7:20 PM

Anyone needing a place for their horses due to the 100 Mile fire, please call me. We have pens at the Williams Lake Stampede Grounds for you.

The next morning, Lana went to work as usual, in the office of Parallel Wood Products. “All of a sudden,” she said, “we had this storm and there were lightning strikes everywhere and I thought, ‘Oh this is not good.’ I’m very involved with the horse community and I knew there was going to be a problem quite quickly.” With the blessing of her employer, she left early to get some pens made up on the stampede grounds. The facility, home to the annual Williams Lake Stampede and the Indoor Rodeo, has stables, a race track, and indoor and outdoor arenas. It was an ideal place to house refugee horses. “Of course,” Lana said, “everything just went so fast, and all of a sudden we started filling up and I was like, ‘You know, this is gonna be a lot more than what we can probably handle.’”

In the afternoon, at 3:13 p.m., Lana posted a message that she marked, “Urgent Please Share.” People were starting to come to the stampede grounds with their horses. She realized that some folks were not only looking for a place of refuge, they also needed help getting their animals to Williams Lake. She put out an appeal for assistance with transport and asked for donations of hay and the loan of water tubs and buckets. The message netted 24 comments and 273 shares. She was well on her way. From then on, the messages flew in and out, fast and furious.

At 4:28 p.m., Lana appealed for someone with a Class 1 licence who could drive a stock trailer for people on Fox Mountain and the community of Wildwood. Ten minutes later she posted that she had lots of horses coming in and needed organizers. Half an hour after that, she reported that Chris on Fox Mountain was asking for assistance with two horses and “other critters.” At 5:56, she was forwarding an offer from Kristen who was on the grounds and could haul two horses. At 6:24, Lana said she had more trailers on standby. “Call my cell,” she posted. “I can’t answer messages fast enough.” At 7:29, she asked for more panels to make up pens. (Panels are portable fences that handlers can use to set up portable corrals for their animals.) At 7:54, she wrote that Janice needed a ride for one horse and asked, “Can someone please call her. I don’t know if the road is closed,” and then a few minutes later she wrote that Janice had a ride—“Thank-you, whoever you are!” At 8:36, she was looking for more volunteers to direct traffic, unload horses, feed, water and clean up pens. “Lots of tired folks down here!” And then at 8:59, “We desperately need more panels at the grounds. We have too many horses and not enough paddocks.” Denise told her she had some panels loaded in her trailer but couldn’t get through. At 9:01, Lana called for more buckets and Elizabeth replied, “I’m down at the grounds, where do you want them?” At 9:09, Lana asked for help watering and feeding horses. At 10:25 p.m., she was telling people to park on the track, and “please bring your own panels if you have them.” At midnight, she was searching for Tricia who was missing and then Penny explained that Tricia was in the 140 Mile House area where the power was out.

Lana told me that she hardly slept for four days. She had help from about a dozen volunteers during the daytime but not at night. She sat on the couch in her trailer where she could see the people bringing in their horses; often they would wake her. “I had a lady banging on my door at 3:00 a.m. and I opened the door and she’s sobbing because she had a three-horse trailer and five horses and she had to decide which three she could bring out.” It was a common problem. “We had one lady who had nine horses and a three-horse trailer,” said Lana. “I myself have four horses and a three-horse trailer.” (When it came time to move her horses, Lana pulled the dividers out, crammed all the horses in and shut the door.)

July 8

6:23 AM

I am just jumping in the shower. (I haven’t stayed up all night and slept in my clothes since I was 18.) Anyone willing to come down and help out feeding and watering horses it would be appreciated so much. Even I haven’t had this many horses to feed all at once before.

Thank you

At 7:20 a.m., Lana informed everyone that the washrooms on the grounds were open and that she had put some toiletries out for people to use. At 8:17, she was thanking Blaine for a donation of coffee and offering it to anyone who needed it. At 8:22, she was letting folks know that she had had over a hundred horses to look after. So far she was good for water tubs and panels but, she warned, “That could change in an instant.” Then the GMC car dealership, Safeway and someone called Cathy donated food, which Lana offered to volunteers and firefighters. At 10:26, Lana was thanking Royce, Tim and Beaver Valley Feeds for bringing in hay, buckets and other supplies. Hay was, of course, a constant need. A hundred horses can eat roughly a thousand kilograms (two large rounds) a day.

By the afternoon of July 8, the number of horses had tripled. Lana was still able to take in more, but she was starting to become uneasy about them. She had been a firefighter more than a decade before, and she didn’t like what she was seeing. “I had a gut feeling that things would get worse before they got better.” She didn’t think that Williams Lake would be safe for long. She thought it, too, would probably be evacuated and, if that happened, how was she was going to get the horses out all at once? Besides, during an evacuation, the traffic was much slower than usual and hard on the horses. Going somewhere with a horse wasn’t like putting your family dog in the back of a car. You could give a dog a bite to eat, a drink of water. You could let it out for short break, but that wasn’t possible with a horse in a trailer. She phoned her friend Chelsea Wallach, in Prince George: “I said to her, ‘Hey you know what? We’ve got over three hundred horses here now.’” Chelsea told her there was space in Prince George and offered to ask her friends in the rodeo world—barrel racers and ropers—if they would be willing to form a convoy and trailer some horses. At 6:16 p.m., Lana posted, “Just got this message from some wonderful friends in PG for anyone who is headed that way with horses. ‘We are all set at PG Agriplex. The arena and rodeo grounds.’”

At 7:50 p.m., Lana was reassuring people that she had lots of room on the grounds. “Please come if you need help and a safe place for your horses.” At 9:32, she reposted a message that an evacuation order had been issued for Alexis Creek and Hanceville. Twenty minutes later, she asked if there was anyone who could pull a nightshift, help unloading horses and packing water. “Everyone here is getting tired,” she explained. “Due to the new order, it’s probably going to get busy.” At midnight, she reported that she was still able to take horses, but also pointed out, “If people are able to travel to Prince George, the air quality is better and the horse community is in full swing and ready for you.”

By July 9, Lana was not only accepting horses at the stampede grounds but also overseeing their move to a safer place. For most horses, that was Prince George. As animals came in, Lana wrote down their names and ages in a simple lined notebook, described them, jotted down if they had brands, recorded behaviour (“halter broke, loads good, hasn’t been tied yet”), dietary preferences (“grass hay for these horses, no alfalfa/grain”), medical needs (“on Pergolide36—syringe with pill and water in mouth”) and the names and phone numbers of the owners.

Her friend Chelsea sent her a list of the licence plate numbers of the trailers she was sending down. When volunteers came to the grounds with trailers to take the horses out, she would record where the horses were headed and help to load them. “They’d go out, the next trailer would pull in and we’d load, and they’d go out. It was just like an assembly line and it went like that for twenty-four hours. Horses were coming in as fast as we could ship them out, pretty much. We had a little system,” she said, modestly. I thought it was a marvel of organization, both flexible and thorough. When the rescue was over, no horses were lost and none lingered behind unclaimed.

Lana also retrieved horses left to fend for themselves. People who had no means of getting their animals to safety would frequently free them and hope they could find their own way. Volunteers working with Lana sometimes came across horses wandering along the roads and picked them up. Then Lana would post a description on Facebook:

July 9

7:52 AM

2 horses found on the highway loose are now safe at the Stampede Grounds. A sorrel gelding with a star, French shoes and a brand and a sorrel gelding with a partial left hind sock and blaze. Found by Sugar Cane.

Everyone was sharing Facebook messages so liberally that it didn’t take more than four or five hours for the owner of these particular “orphan” horses to send Lana a message. She was so pleased someone had found them and was looking after them. Lana then arranged for the horses to go to Prince George. “[The owner] contacted me afterwards and was just so thankful,” Lana remembers, observing that the fires brought people together who would probably otherwise never have known one another. Many people came to her and expressed their gratitude for what she had done. “I think it changes a lot of people for the better,” she said.

When Fox Mountain was evacuated in the afternoon of July 9, a number of people who lived there were working in Williams Lake and weren’t allowed to go home. Lana got permits from the RCMP and the CRD to send a few people who knew the area very well into their properties to find and retrieve the animals. When I asked Lana if she started getting calls from people whose horses were stuck behind the lines, she said, “You bet. And my phone blew up. It was crazy.

“And then I had CBC News trying to call me,” she remembered. “I actually felt bad because one lady said, ‘You know, I really want to do a FaceTime interview with you. I want to talk to you about what’s going on there right now.’ It was so chaotic, I had to say to her, ‘I’m so sorry. I just do not have the time to do that with you.’ I literally did not have two seconds.”

By mid-afternoon, it seemed Lana’s commodious ark was full:

2:47 PM

Anyone who has a load of horses NEEDS to head to Prince George. DO NOT come to the Stampede Grounds. We do not have room.

Lana got messages about other options and reposted those. The Nechako Valley Exhibition Society in Vanderhoof had fifty box stalls, twelve large pens and a livestock pen available. Lise in Cranbrook had pasture for twenty or so horses, as well as two stalls and two paddocks.

An hour later, Lana posted a handwritten note from Leo on Fox Mountain, who had three horses that needed to come out. He included an address and a phone number. Lana added:

3:47 PM

Can anyone help this fellow?

Evidently someone could, because later she posted:

Horses are safe—thanks everyone!

By early evening, Lana needed to clarify that she was offering rides to Prince George for horses that were currently on the grounds.

7:16 PM

No we are NOT on fire. We are just taking precautions. Some people including myself have sent horses to Prince George where I know they are being looked after.

At 7:51, a mule and its owners needed help. The couple were on Old Soda Creek Road, walking the mule out of their place. And then the update: the mule had arrived at the stampede grounds and was fine. Just two minutes later, Lana posted that she was once again able to take more horses.

7:53 PM

We were able to move horses to Prince George so we have more room here.

At 8:22, Lana’s phone was dead from “trying to keep up with all the posts and questions.” And then a comment by Froukje appeared on Lana’s Facebook feed. She was out of town and needed her horse moved out. She was in and out of cell range. Kylie commented that she had trailer space for six to go from Williams Lake to Prince George. Froukje’s horse made it to the stampede grounds and then she started looking to get her to Prince George:

If you can, could you take my horse? Her name is Maple and she’s a five-year-old mare standing at 14.3. She is chestnut with a white dot on her nose.

On July 10 at 10:32 a.m., Lana reported that she had space at the grounds if people wanted their horses to go to Prince George. Twelve hours later:

July 10

10:30 PM

We have horse trailers en route. You will have to stay with your horse and help load and give the driver a piece of paper with all the information on the horse/horses. The horses cannot just be dropped off anymore as we are not going to be able to continue their care.

Many people helped to relocate the horses. Logan Piesse, a twenty-six-year-old trucker from Alberta, made three trips between Prince George and Williams Lake on July 10 alone. That day he drove fourteen hundred kilometres with his six-horse trailer, going from morning until night, through the thickening smoke, eating hardly anything. Lana called him “a gift.” None of the volunteers were paid for their time, although some companies donated gas cards so at least they didn’t have to pay for their fuel.

On July 11 at 7:33 a.m., Lana reported that as far as she knew anyone coming from the north to take horses away was considered an essential service and would not need a permit to pass the checkpoints. But she cautioned that she did not know if or when this could change.

Horses had arrived at 2:30 in the morning, she said, and she had no way of knowing how many more would come.

At 8:54 a.m., she related that more horse trailers were coming and would be allowed to pass the checkpoints. She advised people who were bringing horses destined for Prince George to bring a note for the driver. This should explain how they could be contacted and give information about their horses. She promised that horses would be fed and watered on the grounds as long as possible, but also pointed out that her volunteers had to leave to look after their own families and animals. She herself was driving up to Prince George to retrieve her truck and horse trailer so that she could assist with the final evacuation effort.

And then it was over:

July 11

7:37 PM

They are not needing any more horses hauled out of Williams Lake. Thank you so much to everyone who helped either in a big or little way. You have no idea how much you are appreciated and loved. Please share so no more trucks and trailers head down to us.

Lana was going to stay in Prince George. She has restricted lung capacity because part of one was removed a few years ago, due to cancer. The smoke blanketing Williams Lake made breathing too difficult. When she left, only half a dozen horses remained. They belonged to a few people who were staying at the adjacent campgrounds and taking responsibility for trailering their animals out if an evacuation order came.

I was curious about how Lana had managed with so many animals unfamiliar with each other. I had understood that horses didn’t like to be with strange horses. “I’ve raised horses for twenty-five years and been involved in the horse industry all my life,” she said. “Horses will get across the fence from each other and they’ll fight. They’ll be silly and they don’t like each other. But the strangest part was that we never had a problem with any of those horses. Everybody was put into a pen and they didn’t know each other but they didn’t do anything. Horses that had never been hauled before in their lives got thrown into trailers and taken. It’s like they knew. It was the oddest thing. A lot of these horses had never been to town before. We found a couple of them running down the highway. Somebody had let them loose and we caught them and threw them in a trailer and brought them in. I honestly think they just knew they were going to be safe. Everybody was calm. It was very quiet. There was no nickering at night or squealing. It was the same thing when they all got to Prince George. I had a four-year-old who had never been in a stall in her life. And, you know, I hauled my horses up there and threw her in a stall and said, ‘Okay, this is where you have to live.’ It was just like she had done it all her life.”

“They’re just like people. They behaved better than normal too,” I said. We both laughed. I asked Lana how many horses she and the other people helping her had saved. It was hard to estimate, she told me. She thought that around three hundred was the peak number of horses at the grounds. But while that number may have been constant for a while, the individual horses were always changing. As some were driven away, others came in to replace them. For their efforts, in 2018 the Horse Council of BC gave Lana and her friend Chelsea Volunteer of the Year Awards.

I thought it was a remarkable that the rescue of so many animals took place without anyone being ordered to do anything. Like musicians in a band, people were eager to contribute; they just needed someone to coordinate their efforts. The result was an astonishing crescendo of goodwill.