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fire had destroyed Sandy’s fencing, but with total destruction surrounding us, her timber house and structures were still standing.

My petrol, or lack of, was now about two clicks past critical, but we managed to siphon a litre from Sandy’s ride on mower so we could drive to my receptionist, Jodee O’Leary’s house. Fortunately Jodee and her daughter were away at the time competing in Victoria with their remaining horses.

It was now dark and there was nothing left that was familiar to use as landmarks. Huge sheds that hold large tractors had melted and were unrecognisable. We finally made it to the property, but unfortunately Jodee had lost her house, one horse, fencing and her tackroom. Her three horses had similar injuries to the others we had seen so we treated them and made them as comfortable as possible.

Our final stop was at Michelle Gregory’s property which had several horses. The lack of power (and water) proved to be problematic and it was difficult to see the extent of the horses’ injuries. All but one had extensive burns. A younger mare was badly burnt and in severe distress, the decision was quickly made to euthanise her. Michelle’s other horses had the same weeping eyes and their muzzles were painful, so we administered Flunixyl and Flamazine and eye ointment and again made them comfortable.

It was now time to go back to the clinic to prepare for several of the horses that were coming in for further assessment and treatment.

I am fortunate that I have a very good colleague/friend, who is one of the world’s experts in responding to disasters, Dr John Madigan from U.C. Davis in America, who lectures all over the world on the role of veterinarians in disaster response. He had been one of the many veterinarians to help out in a recent huge Californian fire from my old stomping grounds.

His advice, aside from suggesting we start a fundraising program to deal with these horses, was to prepare for the long haul. He said it was hard to predict about the hooves and some might slough their hooves but most wouldn’t. He frowned on the idea of icing the legs. The only advised icing from many burn specialists including the human specialists was to ice for 20 minutes to cool the initial burn and then never again.

“He frowned on the idea of icing the legs.”

With the first arrivals to the clinic most had suffered burns, however, the last group had burns and lacerations which complicated their recoveries. As they arrived we wrapped lacerations with Flamazine and gave tetanus vaccine boosters, which is very important to any burn cases. Two were started on antibiotics due to lacerations.

The next day triage commenced. Sandy’s, and now Jodee’s horses were the least affected. They all had corneal ulcers which was an interesting feature of these “grass fire” burned horses.

The needs of all the horses were assessed. Some were quite bright and well hydrated, despite what looked like devastating painful injuries. Four of the horses were given IV fluids on the first day. Because of their burns their mouths were so sore they couldn’t eat and drink

Our nurse Sandy Brown had asked to be excused from work. The Pinery, SA fire was not heading towards her house, but she had children and needed to get home so she would not be cut off from them if the fire turned. It did turn. In the hot strong winds it accelerated beyond anyone’s comprehension.

The big fire in California in 2015, burned 77,000 acres in 2 days. The Pinery fire burned 225,000 acres in 5 hours. The fire was clocked at 130 km per hour. There was no time to activate a bushfire plan, to remove heirlooms and pictures or even collect the cats and dogs. Livestock would have to fend for themselves. You had to be in your car and well on your way racing from the oncoming flames and still people were caught in the onslaught.

When the Sampson Flat fire hit in January 2015 horse owners had hours to remove horses from the fire’s flight path. Some horses were moved several times as the fire spread. In January we saw stressed horses and many colicky horses that were moved and put into strange places and given unfamiliar hay and grain. I expected something similar to the January 2015 fires, with the latest fire - that was not meant to be.

Late in the day a call came in with a request that we attend four horses that had been burnt near the town of Roseworthy. My office manager, Jodie Vaughan, and a vet student doing placement, Jordan Ashby asked to join me. My car was low in petrol, but I thought it best to head up and then come back to the town to get petrol.

We arrived at the property owned by our client, Kylie Kemp, who had been ordered to flee and her friends were helping with the horses. To get access to the horses we had to drive through burning embers. Kylie’s horses, Bella, Wyatt, Ash and a pony called Cupcake, later renamed “The Terrorist” by me after she bit me twice when I was giving her pain relief, were all standing together inside a corral.

All four horses were in shock, their manes and tails were singed, curly and smelled of burning hair. They were blinking and their eyes were running and they appeared to have corneal ulcers. There were obvious burns on their muzzles and

all had oozing from their coronary bands which was a significant worry. (My one past experience with this, a few days after the fire, the hoof started sloughing off). Had Kylie been there, I might have made a serious mistake and suggested euthanasia.

We applied a safe ointment to their eyes to provide relief, we administered anti-inflammatories and rubbed Flamazine on the visible burned skin.

Overall, Kylie’s horses fared well in a very bad situation and after treatement it was time to move on.

So here is a question many of us have asked. Are you the kind of person who would run into a burning building to save someone? I have dreaded ever being

tested with that scenario, but here was the test. If we turned left out the driveway we could go back to town and out of the fire zone. If we turned right we would head into the fire area, and we could then, at least, attempt to examine and treat our staff’s, clients’ and good friends’ horses to see if any could be saved or at least administer first aid.

We had no petrol in the car and it was a short trip back to the closest petrol station, but there was a station up at Hamley Bridge where we could refuel and see what assistance we could offer. Lacking a good workplace safety code, and pretty much any common sense, we turned right. The plan was to try and see as many clients as possible.

There were fires all around us, rarely did we see a moving vehicle. We saw a truck and horse float burnt on the side of the road and we drove around fallen trees: it was carnage. I then realised that there would be no power and I would not get petrol at Hamley Bridge. One of the places I was heading to was my nurse’s farm. I figured with lots of luck I could get to Sandy’s farm and siphon petrol from her car.

Up in these burnt areas there were no cell phone towers, and so we had no reception for phone calls or GPS and in the smoke and ravaged land it was hard to get your bearings. We were totally lost, and ended up on a dirt road that had trees down all along it. We moved several trees by hand, and then finally we were blocked by a big fallen tree. We had to turn back and eventually we travelled through a chicken farm that normally has top biosecurity gates and fences. There were no standing fences, and the gates had melted. We crossed through fields that were 6 inches deep in fine powdery sand and arrived at Sandy’s driveway.

Sandy said that four of her horses had perished, but two were alive and seemed unharmed. We could see the dead carcasses in the field as we drove up to her house. The sight was sickening.

The two horses that survived had similar injuries to the previous horses we had seen. We treated their eyes and muzzles and dispensed some sedation so Sandy could transport them to our clinic. The

Their manes and tails were singed, curly and smelled of burning hair

Cupcake, aka “The Terrorist”

Crystal on IV fluids

Wyatt & Cupcake suffered corneal ulcers which was common in many of the horses.

November 25th

and thePinery Fires

Brave Survivors

>>>

Ash suffered burns and

lacerations

More burns

written by Dr. Elizabeth

Woolsey Herbert, DVM, Adelaide Plains Equine

Clinic

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