Dog protects block’s sole remaining house

Family lost everything, but they still have Ella

REDDING, Calif. – Amid the rubble, the air thick with smoke, sat Ella, the border collie.

Her paws were burned and she was exhausted. For nearly two days, Ella did what Ella does: protect those she loves.

Her own family’s home was gone, but one single neighbor’s home was standing. So Ella waited there.

The Copsey family was forced to evacuate their Paradise, California, home as the swift-moving fire tore through their neighborhood.

In the midst of chaos, owner Leahna Copsey thought about Ella and hoped for the best. But they had to go.

As Leahna and her children fled down the road, what she thought were merely headlights became bright orange flames. Her daughter, Clarisa, 8, complained of the heat on her face. She asked, were they going to die? Copsey knew they might not have a home or Ella to go back to.

It wasn’t long before a quick drive down the road became a nearly threehour fight for their lives. The family battled bottlenecked traffic, flames on either side of their car and smoke.

“All you could see was where the fire wasn’t,” Copsey said. “It was like something out of a movie. They had no idea where the fire was, and for it to jump like that – it was unreal.”

The family managed to escape the blaze and settled in lower Lake County, nearly two hours away from their home, to wait it out.

As the hours trailed on and news of the devastation began to fill news outlets and social media, they began to fear the worst.

Then they learned their home was gone. Surely Ella was, too.

Then, a friend called. He had gotten back into the evacuated area on Saturday. And through the haze in this destroyed town he’d seen Ella, right there in front of the next-door neighbors home.

“She was protecting it,” Copsey said. “She was protecting the only house left on the block.”

The family erupted in excitement. Ella had been burned and was exhausted, but she was going to be all right.

“She’s a really good dog, so I was really relieved she was alive and it was only minor burns,” Clarisa said.

Ella was treated for her burns and is staying with the family’s oldest daughter, Kayla Westman. Westman has several photos and videos of Ella sleeping on her chest, her legs wrapped in bandages.

On Wednesday, less than a week after the fire, the family began the first steps to rebuild.

At the Butte Humane Society, they picked up a dog crate, bed, food and toys for Ella.

Two days after seeing the tens of thousands of residents displaced because of the fire, Katrina Woodcox, executive director of the Butte Humane Society, knew she needed to do something to help.

“I just thought we need to create a pet supply and food pantry,” she said. “Our focus at the humane society is to think about the immediate needs of the evacuees and really anybody affected by the fire.”

Soon, the organization began receiving truckloads of pet food and supplies. Currently, the organization is sheltering more than 100 cats, Woodcox said. In total, more than 1,700 animals are being cared for at shelters in Chico alone.

The need for supplies is so great, shelters can hardly keep things on the shelves, said Mandy McClaine, pet food and supply manager.

“When the media goes away, and the fire is out, and life goes back to normal and kids go back to school, we’re still going to have the occupants of 7,000 homes who have nothing,” Woodcox said, citing a figure that has since risen to nearly 10,000.

“I would like to see and hope that our community and beyond our community can support these folks for the next however long it takes.”

CALLEY CEDERLOF Clarisa Copsey, 8, holds supplies for her dog at the pet supply and food pantry in Chico, Calif.

SUBMITTED For nearly two days, Ella sat at the only home left in her neighborhood, waiting for her owners to return.