Milli Fire forces people – and their animals – to evacuate

As of late afternoon Friday, the Milli Fire put hundreds of homes into a Level 3 “GO” evacuation, affecting at least 1,500 people — and consequently, affecting their animals, too.

The Pet Evacuation Team is an animal rescue organization that serves Central Oregon, and Jamie Kanski is the regional coordinator.

“We are taking large animals, horses, livestock,” Kanski said Friday. “We have taken, in the past, goats, and other farm animals, chickens, and we also have a special area to house cats, dogs and other companion animals.”

Volunteers set up a station at the Sisters Rodeo grounds and the team says they’ll be there the next few days, ready to take in any large or small animal that needs help.

Other places are taking in animals as well, including Weston Equine Services, Alison Weston said.

“We’ve been getting calls. We put the word out a couple days ago, that this a spot people can bring their horses if they need,” she said.

“Our temporary pens are now full, our overnight pens are full, but we have portable corrals we can set up for people,” Weston added.

As of Friday morning, the facility had taken in six horses. They said with the way things are looking, they expect to see more.

Fire crews from across the state are in Sisters, and there’s a special team dedicated to protecting homes, explained Tommy Schroeder from the State Fire Marshal’s Office explained.

“They do a basic triage, or an assessment of all the homes, and see what structures need more work more quickly,” Schroeder said.

“That can include clearing brush away from around homes, setting sprinklers, just making the space more defensible, so if the fire doesn’t creep up in the area, it’s not going to burn the house,” he added.

The structural protection crew includes 89 firefighters on the ground, 25 fire apparatus and 31 overhead team members who manage the whole group.