A weary Wally Barraza, an assistant trainer at Red Oak Stables, waits for more horses to arrive Wednesday after working all night evacuating racehorses to Albuquerque Downs from Ruidoso Downs. The village of Ruidoso was evacuated Monday.
Assistant trainer Wally Barraza, left, and groom Trinidad Guzman with Red Oak Stables of Phoenix get their horses settled in at Albuquerque Downs as they wait for more horses to arrive Wednesday.
A dog found by law enforcement in the Alto area Wednesday morning and brought to the Humane Society of Lincoln County in Ruidoso. Shelter manager Chris Shows said the dog, a male Great Pyrenees mix without any tags, was sitting outside a burned-down house, which officials suspect may have been his home.
Horse groom Trinidad Guzman with Red Oak Stables of Phoenix feeds one of the stables' best racers, True Secret, a grassy treat as he waits for more horses to arrive. He had worked all night to evacuate the racehorses to the Albuquerque Downs from Ruidoso Downs on Wednesday.
A weary Wally Barraza, an assistant trainer at Red Oak Stables, waits for more horses to arrive Wednesday after working all night evacuating racehorses to Albuquerque Downs from Ruidoso Downs. The village of Ruidoso was evacuated Monday.
ALBUQUERQUE — As the smell of smoke hit the Ruidoso Downs stables where Enrique Gomez stayed Monday and Tuesday nights, he heard some of the horses start to scream.
“They don’t like the fire,” said Gomez, an Albuquerque resident who works for well-known racehorse trainer Rafael Barraza in Ruidoso Downs during the racing season. “They want to jump and get out of the smoke.”
Gomez and a number of other helpers, grooms and trainers stayed at the stables with the horses they were caring for as residents of nearby Ruidoso streamed out, fleeing the fast-moving South Fork and Salt fires that had both ignited Monday.
Assistant trainer Wally Barraza, left, and groom Trinidad Guzman with Red Oak Stables of Phoenix get their horses settled in at Albuquerque Downs as they wait for more horses to arrive Wednesday.
Jim Weber/The New Mexican
The evacuation order for Ruidoso Downs wasn’t issued until late afternoon Tuesday. Cell service and internet were down, Gomez said, and it was 2 a.m. Wednesday when somebody with the facility arrived to tell him and his colleagues they had to go.
It was 7 a.m. by the time they finished loading nine of Barraza’s racehorses onto a trailer and drove out of town, said Wally Barraza, Rafael Barraza’s brother and an assistant trainer.
“Never in my life,” Wally Barraza said, describing how he felt seeing wildfires glowing and smoking on either side of town.
He spoke Wednesday afternoon at the Albuquerque Downs stables, where the nine thoroughbreds found refuge, along with dozens of other horses from Ruidoso Downs.
At that time, he said, he hadn’t yet heard from his brother, who was still at Ruidoso Downs trying to evacuate the other 20 horses he has there.
Officials with the racetrack couldn’t be reached Wednesday for an update.
Dan Mourning, general manager of Expo New Mexico, said the 1,500-stall Albuquerque Downs facility is expecting about 68 horses from Ruidoso and has room for more.
Horse groom Trinidad Guzman with Red Oak Stables of Phoenix feeds one of the stables' best racers, True Secret, a grassy treat as he waits for more horses to arrive. He had worked all night to evacuate the racehorses to the Albuquerque Downs from Ruidoso Downs on Wednesday.
Jim Weber/The New Mexican
As residents of the area escaped the flames, hurrying to shelters, hotels and the homes of friends and family members in other communities, moving animals of all types has proven to be a major challenge.
Some landowners have worked with various agencies to rescue livestock left behind during the rapid evacuation, said George Ducker, a State Forestry Division spokesman.
But access to those lands has been cut off and the roads closed as the wildfires engulf nearby forests, making it dangerous to enter the properties, he said.
“It’s just a tenuous situation because the whole area has been shut down,” Ducker said. “The whole area is an active fire site.”
A dog found by law enforcement in the Alto area Wednesday morning and brought to the Humane Society of Lincoln County in Ruidoso. Shelter manager Chris Shows said the dog, a male Great Pyrenees mix without any tags, was sitting outside a burned-down house, which officials suspect may have been his home.
Photo courtesy of Chris Shows
Meanwhile, two staffers are holding down the fort at the nearly empty Humane Society of Lincoln County in Ruidoso.
“We’re basically the last resort for any animals that are found, any dogs or cats,” said Abel Guzman, the shelter’s operational director, who stayed behind after his wife, children and parents evacuated to El Paso.
The Salt Fire is just behind the facility, shelter manager Chris Shows told The New Mexican on Wednesday, and as evacuees headed out of town, many came and dropped off their pets in hopes they’d stay safe there.
“We got quite a few,” said Shows, whose sister’s family, mother and aunt also evacuated the area. “In about an hour, we had 20 animals come in. … It filled up the shelter.”
As the fires and the danger grew, Shows said a number of agencies helped clear out the shelter Monday night and Tuesday; a team from Española Humane picked up eight dogs Tuesday. Animal Humane New Mexico took more than 20, Shows said, while Best Friends Animal Society picked up the shelter’s cats and transported 36 cats to Animal Humane New Mexico, which also took in 23 dogs.
Staffers Martín Olivera and Juan Carlos Garcia of Española Humane accept animals evacuated from Ruidoso because of the South Fork and Salt wildfires.
Courtesy photo
The Santa Fe Animal Shelter and Humane Society helped coordinate transport for a group of dogs and cats that were taken to a temporary shelter in Roswell.
As of Wednesday, only Shows’ and Guzman’s dogs were left — along with a Great Pyrenees mix that law enforcement officers brought in after finding him in the Alto area. The dog had no tags, but Shows said she believes he isn’t really a stray.
“He was found outside his burned home just sitting and waiting for his people and trying to figure out where his home is,” Shows said.
Shows and Guzman said service is spotty, and they’ve been “in the dark” during most of the fire. But they said they’re committed to staying as long as they can so stray dogs and cats have a place to go.
“The evacuations and getting everybody out is one part,” Shows said. “Once we start getting our evacuations lifted … that’s when the real work happens. That’s when we got to kick it into high gear.”
That will mean helping community members get animal food, kennels and other supplies, she said.
Guzman said he hopes other New Mexicans who live in fire-prone areas take a lesson from the chaos of the Ruidoso evacuations.
“For everyone who has a pet, make him a part of your emergency evacuation plan,” he said.
Clarification: This story has been amended to reflect the following clarification: An earlier version gave an incomplete report on groups that took in cats, based on information provided by the organization. Best Friends Animal Society picked up the shelter’s cats and transported 36 cats to Animal Humane New Mexico, which also took in 23 dogs.
New Mexican reporter Scott Wyland contributed to this story.
