Temporary arrangements being made for animals after fire at rescue farm
CHATHAM The operators of an animal rescue operation that suffered a $400,000 fire Wednesday night are working to provide temporary housing for their animals until the barn destroyed in the blaze can be rebuilt.
“I can’t even tell you how amazing people have been,” Charlotte’s Freedom Farm founder Lauren Edwards said Friday.
In addition to more than $10,000 in donations already made to the Brook Line farm, she said two people brought by hay while others have offered to house some of the animals.
Edwards appreciated the offers to take care of the animals but wants to keep them on-site.
“On top of what they’ve been through, to put them through that extra stress can actually lead to medical problems,” Edwards said.
Some of her goats are not too hardy, she explained, and could easily go into shock.
The fire claimed the life of a miniature pony named Forrest, a dog and four cats. Christine Rettig, a caretaker at the rescue farm, ran into the burning barn several times before firefighters arrived, opening stalls and saving about three dozen animals.
Edwards said about 60 per cent of the animals at the farm, which include a donkey, other dogs and a calf, spent their nights in the now-gutted barn.
She said a crew worked into the night Thursday to clear out a nearby building that was used for storage, converting it into living quarters for some of the surviving animals.
“We put a big group of sheep and goats and alpacas in there overnight.”
She said a stall was built in the farm’s rehabilitation centre and another in the garage for their pig.
She added the farm’s dogs, piglets and ducks spent the night in the house.
The next step is to acquire three prefabricated buildings, similar to several others on the site, to temporarily house the animals until a new barn can be built.
“We’re keeping everyone on-site and, if we can get these three buildings in, it’s going to be quite easy (to house them all),” Edwards said.
She noted one of the prefabs doesn’t require a permit, but the other two — a 10-by-20-foot structure and another 10-by-16-foot building — both need permits.
Edwards is hoping to get the new buildings on-site and permits approved by early next week.
She said the plan is to put two buildings in a pasture, so the animals can stay there during the day and then be housed at night.
“It’s safe and it just makes things a little easier,” Edwards said.
Paolo Magliaro, manager of inspections and enforcement, said the municipality does offer fasttrack permits on a case-by-case basis.
“This is the type of thing … where we’re absolutely going to try and work with them to get them up and running,” he said.
However, he said the municipality has to follow all of the proper legislation and regulations.
Magliaro noted there was a quick discussion with the animal rescue farm Friday morning, saying there’s some regulations with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture,
Food and Rural Affairs and minimum distance setback requirements that need to be followed because of the classification of the building and what they’re doing.
“Once we have that information, then we’ll definitely review it as quick as we can here to hopefully get things going,” Magliaro said.
Edwards said the full extent of the tragedy is “definitely just hitting me.” They buried the dog and cats last night.
Edwards said she knows there’s always loss that’s experienced on a farm, but losing all these animals at once “was probably the worst moment in my entire life.”