TIEC opens doors to house out-of-town firefighters

TRYON– As wildfires continue to spread in western North Carolina and across upstate South Carolina, local equestrian organizations have put together an evacuation plan in case of emergency for horses and their owners.

The Foothills Equine Nature Center (FENCE) is offering free stalls for horses that need to be evacuated, according to Executive Director Tracie Hanson. Hanson said horse owners who need to evacuate their horses are responsible for the feed, hay, horse care and shavings.

“FENCE is, as always, an evacuation horse site,” Hanson said, “and all of our 301 stalls are available to evacuees free of charge. We just tell them that they need to supply their own horse supplies and care for their horses.”

Hanson added owners can bring their shavings or have her order them, in which case she would just charge for the shavings and not shipping costs, because she said the wildfires are more local than when she had people evacuating from the coast in the face of Hurricane Matthew in October.

“We have opened up the facilities but so far we have not had to take in any horses,” Hanson said. “We did get some calls and inquiries and I know when the Columbus fire broke out we were on deck to get the horses but the fire was quickly put out. The horses were able to be culled off and able to go back to their pastures.”

The stalls are open for as long as the wildfires are burning, Hanson said, and she added the community has been great in contributing resources and coming together to help out.

“I know we’ve also had people call in and say their farm is available if an overflow occurs,” Hanson said. “The community outreach, the help through the fires and the hurricanes has been amazing, truly.”

Patti Lovelace is the executive director of the Foothills Equine Rescue and Assistance (FERA) branch of the Foothills Humane Society. Lovelace said local equine organizations and emergency personnel held a meeting at Green Creek Fire Department on November 22 to put together a protocol to help horse evacuees.

“We had the scare last Friday and Anita Williamson and I jumped in and got horses evacuated off of Golden Road,” Lovelace said. “With no plan it went smoothly, by some miracle, but we decided that if something happened bigger than that we best have a plan. It kind of got started with people being on a call list so that when a call goes out, we will also be notified like the fire department and the sheriff’s office.”

Lovelace said she and Williamson, chief of rescue operations for Polk Equine Emergency Rescue (PEER), would be going out into the community to gather individuals with trucks and trailers who would be willing to help the next time an emergency occurs where evacuations are necessary.

She added a contact form for horse people could be posted on the doors of their homes and barns in the event they are not home and need to have their horses evacuated.

“We’re going to go around the community to folks that I know that have trucks and trailers who would be willing to haul horses if need be,” Lovelace explained. “Molly Oakman at TIEC offered stabling as well. Right now, it’s getting people on a call list with trucks and trailers lined up if we have to move quickly.”

Oakman, community relations manager at Tryon International Equestrian Center (TIEC), said while the center has stabling, it is not being used publicly at this time, and added she is working directly with Williamson, PEER and Michael Wheeler, who is head of safety and security at TIEC.

“If we have availability, we will work directly with Anita, PEER and the different emergency services within Polk County and surrounding counties if need be to offer those services,” Oakman said. “We are not going to publicly open the stables and will work with the emergency rescue, the Polk equine rescue and emergency services to facilitate that. We are fortunate right now that we have stabling available to us and it’s rare that we do given our season being extended.”

Lodging for firefighters who have come from as far away as Alaska to fight the Party Rock fire in Lake Lure has been booked up, according to Oakman. TIEC currently has 50 rooms on property at the Stable House Inn and Oakman said the center has extended lodging at 30 of the center’s cabins to firefighters.

Oakman added the Lodge at Lake Lure has seen firefighters from New Mexico, Charlotte and the U.S. Forestry Service. Since the center started hosting firefighters on November 11, 499 rooms have been booked by firefighters at Tryon Resort, according to Oakman.

“We have been quite full and we are once again fortunate this time of season to have availability in our lodging,” Oakman explained. “I know the Stable House Inn has been booked with the firefighters fighting the Party Rock fire and we’ve extended those lodging opportunities as need be for other surrounding fires. We are working with the state and surrounding firefighters to provide that service.”

Veterinarians are also on standby, according to Lovelace, to administer tranquilizers if horses become frightened and begin to act out with helicopters and fire trucks circling the area. She added a future meeting is being planned to include local horse owners to further disperse the information presented at the November 22 meeting.

In her “This Week in Tryon Horse Country” e-mailed newsletter, Libbie Johnson said communication is key when it comes to horse evacuations. Johnson said the most important thing for horse owners to do is to register their phone numbers with the Polk County Sheriff’s Department emergency system for alerts containing the right information.

“This was a rude awakening,” Johnson wrote. “What happens when the unthinkable happens? Hurricanes. Wildfires. This has been the year of evacuations. Communication, of course, is key.”