As the Easy Fire swept through Simi Valley, California on Wednesday, neighbors, volunteers, and basically anyone else who could lend a helping hand were being used to help evacuate the panicking horses, and move them away from the fast-moving wildfire.
CBS Los Angeles reports that all made it out of the area safely except for one, a mare who sadly needed to be euthanized at the scene after breaking her two front legs fleeing the fire. The tally could have been slightly higher if it weren’t for the heroic efforts of another horse who returned to smoke-filled hillside without hesitation to retrieve and help guide two others to safety.
In other animal-related Easy Fire news, goats may have helped save the nearby Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, the largest presidential library in the United States. Library spokeswoman Melissa Giller told USA Today that the Ventura County Fire Department brings hundreds of goats to the eat the brush around the perimeter of the library in an effort to construct a firebreak.
“The firefighters on the property said that the fire break really helped them because as the fire was coming up that one hill, all the brush has been cleared, basically," Giller said. It was a close call for the Reagan Library as the flames were only a few feet away from the area in the building that housed the former president’s Air Force One.
