The Camp Fire, now California’s deadliest and most destructive wildfire ever recorded, is 70 percent contained, after raging for 12 days. The Sacramento Bee reports that the current number of deaths stands at 79, with 699 people still unaccounted for. Wrapped up in the disaster from the beginning, along with the human residents of Paradise and the neighboring area, have been the animal residents—the pets, working animals, livestock, and wildlife that have also become victims, evacuees, rescuers, and comforters. Families who fled the inferno on a moment’s notice threw their pets into their cars and trucks, and ranchers rushed to get their animals to safety. Many wild animals were not lucky enough to escape. Animal shelters stepped in to house and care for rescued and injured pets, and working animals were brought in to help with search, rescue, and recovery, and to serve as comfort animals for the victims.
The Animals of California’s Devastating Camp Fire
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Read moreThe veterinarian Dawn Alves tends to a dog named Fatty who received burns on its eyes and chin during the Camp Fire in Paradise, California, on November 11, 2018. #
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Read moreA donkey stands tied to a road sign as the Camp Fire burns in Big Bend, California, on November 9, 2018. #
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Read moreEmbers fly as wind and flames from the Camp Fire tear through Paradise, California, on November 8, 2018. #
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Read moreDogs roam a burned-out neighborhood as the Camp Fire roars through Paradise on November 8, 2018. #
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Read moreThe Cal Fire captain Steve Millosovich carries a cage full of cats that were found on the road after the Camp Fire moved through the area on November 9, 2018, in Big Bend, California. #
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Read moreMedical personnel evacuate patients as the Feather River Hospital burns while the Camp Fire rages through Paradise on November 8, 2018. #
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Read moreThe Rocklin police officer Randy Law tends to a horse that was found wandering after the Camp Fire passed through the area on November 9, 2018, in Paradise. #
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Read moreThe equine veterinarian Jesse Jellison carries an injured goose to a waiting transport during the Camp Fire in Paradise on November 10, 2018. #
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Read moreDeer walk past a destroyed home on Orrin Lane after the wildfire burned through Paradise on November 10, 2018. #
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Read moreThe 9-year-old pit bull Tone, who suffered burned paws in the Camp Fire, rests in the parking lot of Neighborhood Church of Chico, in Chico, California, on November 11, 2018. #
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Read moreA burned deer lies on the side of the road as the Camp Fire moves through the area on November 8, 2018, in Paradise, California. #
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Read moreAraya Cipollini, 19, holds on to her dog T.J. near the burned-out remnants of her neighbor's home on November 10, 2018, in Paradise. Cipollini and her family lost their home nearby in the fire. #
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Read moreDogs rescued from the fire are safe in the Oroville shelter, south of Paradise, California, on November 16, 2018. Pets were entrusted to three shelters set up in the neighboring areas of Paradise. #
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Read moreAnimal Service staff and veterinarians tend to animals in the Oroville shelter, south of Paradise, on November 16, 2018. #
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Read moreA cat rescued from the fire rests in the Oroville shelter on November 16, 2018. #
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Read moreSuzanne Kaksonen, an evacuee of the Camp Fire, and her cockatoo, Buddy, camp in a makeshift shelter outside a Walmart store in Chico, California, on November 14, 2018. Kaksonen lost her Paradise home in the blaze. #
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Read moreJason House attempts to put a respirator mask on his dog, Rowland, at an evacuee encampment in a Walmart parking lot in Chico on November 17, 2018. #
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Read moreA dog peeks its head out of a tent in a field next to a Walmart parking lot where Camp Fire evacuees have been staying on November 16, 2018. #
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Read moreDiesel, a French bulldog puppy, looks on from a shopping cart at an evacuee encampment in Chico on November 17, 2018. #
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Read moreCalifornia Governor Jerry Brown talks with emergency workers, including Robert Duvall, second from right, a chaplain with Winters Police Department, accompanied by his K-9 partner, Kepi, on site to provide emotional support to those in need after the Camp Fire on November 14, 2018, in Paradise. #
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Read moreReuben, a comfort dog with the Lutheran Church Charities' K-9 Comfort Dog Ministry, gets attention from an attendee at the Neighborhood Church of Chico, which is serving as an emergency shelter for those displaced by the Camp Fire, in Chico, on November 11, 2018. #
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Read moreTrish Moutard (center), of Sacramento, and other volunteers search for human remains with Moutard's cadaver dog, I.C., in a neighborhood destroyed by the Camp Fire, in Paradise, on November 14, 2018. #
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Read moreA cadaver dog named I.C. searches for human remains in a house destroyed by the Camp Fire in Paradise on November 14, 2018. #
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Read moreA rescue worker uses a cadaver dog to search for human remains at a mobile-home park that was destroyed by the Camp Fire on November 14, 2018, in Paradise. #
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Read moreA rescue worker lifts a cadaver dog over a section of roof that collapsed as she searches for human remains in a mobile-home park on November 14, 2018, in Paradise. #
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Read moreA search-and-rescue dog searches for human remains in the aftermath of the Camp Fire in Paradise on November 16, 2018. #
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Read moreThe Camp Fire evacuee Sarah Rowland kisses a friend's dog as she camps in a Walmart parking lot on November 15, 2018, in Chico, California. #
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