The mountains east of San Diego are ablaze with out-of-control wildfires in October and November. (Photo courtesy of Amy Davis and www.textamerica.com.)

AT 2 A.M. on Oct. 26, Nancy Baar sat up in bed and looked out her window. The Cuyamaca Mountains rising up behind her Spanish-style home in Descanso, Calif., had never looked so spectacular. They were on fire.

"I knew it had only one more ridge to come over, and then it would just be the canyon between me and the fire," said Baar.

For two days Baar had nervously watched the Cedar Fire, the largest of 10 that burned out of control in southern California last year east of San Diego, advance closer. A bird breeder and part-time rescuer for 25 years, Baar kept 71 birds on her four-acre property. She also had two dogs, a miniature horse and pot-bellied pig. But Baar figured that as long as she remained vigilant, she would have plenty of time to evacuate. She had even bought 30 spare pillowcases as emergency bird carriers.

As another day passed, conflicting reports kept Baar on edge. The radio said residents of Descanso should leave, but her closest neighbors, who lived a couple of miles down the winding road, told Baar they did not think it was necessary. That evening, Baar's phone line went dead, leaving her unable to communicate with her son. With the fire closer than ever, Baar did not go to bed that night.

'You have 10 minutes'
At around 3 a.m. on Oct. 27, Baar's neighbors knocked on her door to tell her they were evacuating. Baar had already put the dogs in her van; her neighbors helped her load the horse. Soon after, the police arrived with bullhorns. Baar was stunned to hear she had 10 minutes to pack up and go.

Frantic, she drove to the post office, where some of Descanso's 1700 residents had gathered, and begged for help with her birds.

"Someone told me, 'Animals don't count.' I said, 'I’m staying, even if I burn up.' Being alone, my animals are my family," recounts Baar.

Baar convinced a police officer to come to her house and help her put some of her birds in pillowcases, including Niko the hyacinth macaw; Bongo, Rica and Smokey, African greys; and Pebbles, a blue-and-gold macaw.

The officer hustled Bacon the pig into his patrol car, then ordered the heartbroken Baar to go. Time was running out. She would have to leave the rest of her birds behind.

Labor-intensive task
Unbeknownst to Baar, the officer radioed the South County Animal Shelter for help. At 4:30 a.m., the telephone woke animal control officer Darrell Hanson at his home 40 miles away in south San Diego. A lady needed help evacuating some exotic birds – could he drive out and take a look?

Hanson, who had already spent several long days rescuing pets from fire-threatened homes all over San Diego County, threw on some clothes and jumped into his truck to begin the hour-and-20-minute drive east to Descanso.

Niko the hyacinth macaw was treated to a trip inside a pillowcase when owner Nancy Baar had to flee a fire.

When he arrived at Baar's rural sandstone home, Hanson was shocked to see how close the fire was – no more than a quarter of a mile away now - and dismayed to see how many birds there were.

He counted over 40 scattered through the house and outside in a modular prefab building. "I could see how labor intensive this was going to be," he said.

Hanson called for backup then got to work. In his 15 years as an animal control officer he had rounded up emus, herded horses and tackled goats, but he had never had to catch a parrot before.

"I'm really not familiar with them. I had to walk into these cages with giant birds," he said. Hanson donned heavy "cat gloves" and threw a beach towel over the birds he could not get to step onto a perch. "They squawked and put up a fuss."

Hanson's colleagues, Lisa Worrick and Jennifer Green, arrived half an hour later and together the trio worked feverishly to save Nancy Baar's birds. Hanson feared it was a lost cause. He had seen other fires this close take over a home within a few minutes. "I figured we had another half hour, tops." Periodically a propane tank exploded nearby as the flames engulfed yet another property.

But Nancy Baar's birds – and the town of Descanso - got lucky. Thanks to firefighters' efforts and a change in the wind, the fire stalled. It took almost two hours, but officers Hanson, Worrick and Green finished the job. By the time they left Baar's house at 8 a.m., they had crammed three trucks with dog and cat kennels holding 44 birds from parakeets to macaws.

'I'll get food for you'
Low on gas, Baar took Interstate 8 east, the only direction left open, eight miles to Pine Valley, where the Red Cross had set up an evacuation center at a high school gymnasium. There was hardly space for a pet dog among the tightly packed cots, much less 27 birds. Worse, Baar had brought no formula for the greenwing macaw and eclectus fledglings she was still hand feeding.

Once again, luck was on Baar's side. A sympathetic volunteer helped her find a locker and some cardboard boxes so she could at least release the birds from their stuffy pillowcases. Baar asked a National Guardsman to help her get food for the hungry babies.

"He said, 'I get off at six o'clock and I will go get you food. Even if I have to open something up, I'll get it for you.'", Baar remembers. "He came back at 8 o'clock with handfeeding formula."

For five days Baar's family had no idea whether she was safe. Baar herself did not know whether her house was still standing or if the rest of her birds were alive.

Making room for orphans
Baar's birds were in good hands. After leaving her house, animal control officers Hanson, Worrick and Green drove straight to a parking lot in San Diego where they were met by volunteers from the Parrot Rehabilitation Society, a local bird rescue organization.

PRS member Barbara Pake, who runs the Ortwin hardware store in San Diego, took in 13 of the displaced birds, including eclectuses, Moluccan cockatoos, King parrots, and three macaws.

Guy Mock, retired from the Navy, and his wife, Adrianne Mock, a marine biologist who teaches at the San Diego Floating Marine Classroom, took the remaining 31 birds. Those included two pairs of double-yellow headed Amazons, a pair of greenwing macaws, two scarlet macaws, two medium sulphur-crested cockatoos, conures, African greys and six toco toucans.

The Mocks, who have five large birds of their own, emptied their garage to accommodate their feathered guests. "Guy put his '59 MGA and motorcycle on the front lawn," said Adrianne. "He wouldn’t do that for me."

For the next several weeks Pake and the Mocks spent all their spare time feeding and cleaning up after the birds and playing with them. Neighbors and area businesses donated food, cages and dishes. "If you have to be anywhere for a disaster, San Diego is the place to be," said Adrianne.

Aside from being wary of their new surroundings, the birds showed no ill effects from their ordeal. "They were in beautiful condition, not sick from the fire at all," said Pake.

There was just one problem. No one knew who they belonged to.

Reunited
In November the PRS enlisted San Diego AM radio station KOGO for help in finding the birds' owner. Baar's son heard the announcement and called Guy Mock. "When I came home from work that day, Guy told me, 'We found the owner,'" said Adrianne.

Nancy Baar came to the Mocks' house the next day to make a positive ID. As soon as the birds saw Baar, they began calling to her, said Adrianne.

"The greys were whistling at her. The Amazons pinned and flashed and the tails went out. They recognized her. Nancy gave us all their names and their quirks."

Upon seeing all of her birds safe, Baar burst into tears. "They do love her," said Adrianne. "She takes really good care of them. She mothers them; they’re like her kids.

"It was incredible to help her out. It just makes you feel so good to be able to do something like this."

Daughter saves birds
With animal rescue efforts scattered over several counties and rescue organizations, no one knows exactly how many avian companions were affected by the California wildfires.

However, Baar was far from alone in her close call. The sprawling Cedar Fire also threatened the Lakeside home – and 90 parrots - of Donna Heilman 12 miles away in Harbison Canyon. Unfortunately, Heilman was not at home at the time. She was 350 miles away in Los Angeles, attending a Peter Frampton concert.

Heilman's daughter, Jamie, saved her house and birds, at the cost of her own home. With authorities minutes away from closing the area, Jamie stuffed the birds into 30 dog and cat carriers Heilman had stocked up on in case of emergency and evacuated them in three truckloads, including 50 cockatiels, 36 macaws, two African greys and two Amazons.

The fire came to within a few feet of Heilman's front door and destroyed almost half the 10 empty aviaries.

"My daughter is the real hero," says Heilman. "She sprayed my birds down. They were inundated with smoke, their eyes were all red. Her house a block away burned down. She lost everything she owned."

Heilman kept her birds at Birdland, a San Diego pet store she manages, for about a week until she was sure the air quality was safe.

Shelters in the firestorm
Pet birds, among cats, dogs, rabbits and other pets, also found refuge in animal shelters and even pet stores that generously opened their doors.

One of the busiest shelters was the city of San Bernardino's Animal Control Department, which took in about 500 evacuated pets during the worst of the firestorms, a period of about two weeks, said animal control director Ken Childress. That number included 150 birds.

A national guardsman delivered hand-feeding formula for Nancy Baar's wildfire-displaced baby eclectuses.

Providing the birds with appropriate caging, perches, food and care was a challenge for the shelter, which is geared toward dogs and cats, said Childress.

"People had to just get up and leave their homes, so birds were crammed into anything, like cat traps. Macaws’ tails were sticking out. Some were brought in trash cans. They were very nasty; hard to handle. And the cockatiels - talk about noisy!"

It didn't help that most of the shelter's small staff was gone - they had also had to flee their homes. Fortunately, Noah's Wish, a Placerville, Calif.-based disaster relief organization for animals, sent 25 volunteers to help the shelter take care of their feathered homeless. Several parakeets died for unknown reasons, and some African greys began to pluck out their feathers, but otherwise all the pet birds were safely reunited with their families, said Childress.

PetSmart to the rescue
At the fairgrounds in nearby Victorville, over 1,000 animals were cared for ranging from dogs and cats to horses, pigs and geese. The Victorville PetSmart store volunteered to keep the evacuated birds of the area, which numbered about 42. Store manager Gail Reilly kept them in a 500-square-foot back room in PetSmart's own cages. Hurried and upset owners brought their birds in in cardboard boxes; one man carried his macaw in in his arms, said Reilly.

It was a week before rescuers could reach the Running Springs residence of the Shifter family to evacuate their animals, including Mikey the cockatiel, Larry the Senegal and Baby the lovebird. "We gave them permission to break a window to get into the house," said Anne Shifter, "so that's what they did."

The Shifter pets were taken to the Rancho Cucamonga shelter, where a volunteer brought in her own cage so Mikey the cockatiel wouldn't have to live in his cramped carrier. The Shifters had left lots of extra food for the birds, but the house had no heat and it snowed during their absence, said Anne. "It was kind of nerve-racking. It was a real relief to see them at the shelter and know they were okay."

The rains came
Rain and cooler temperatures finally helped put out the California wildfires in November. When it was over, the flames had burned over 280,000 acres, destroyed 2200 homes and killed 22 people, including firefighters.

Bird owner Donna Heilman's advice to those who live in disaster-prone areas: "Be ready. Have enough carriers. Have enough nets. Have a network of friends if you're out of town. Have a plan. You never know. Have a place where you can go. I was a lucky because I had my daughter and my friends."

Mark Scina of the Rancho Cucamonga shelter recommends a portable disaster kit: a travel cage, enough food and water to last two weeks, and a towel to cover the cage. "Anything the bird is going to need to stay happy and safe and content."

Dr. Suzanne Peterson is a veterinarian at the Rancho San Diego Animal Hospital in El Cajon, Calif., where about 15 pet birds were brought by their owners for respiratory distress. The most critical were given oxygen, steroid injections and antibiotics. All recovered.

Peterson said the best thing to do is to remove your bird from smoky air as soon as possible. If you cannot leave right away, close windows, put towels at the bottom of the door and use an air filter if possible. Symptoms of respiratory problems include open-beak breathing, tail bobbing and weakness.

The homecoming
Miraculously, Nancy Baar was able to recover all of her animals. A foster home in nearby Lakeside had her miniature horse. Another shelter released Bacon to Baar when the happy pig rolled over on his back so Baar could scratch his belly. "They have to make sure you’re the owner," said Baar.

Even two African greys that had hidden in their nestboxes from animal control officer Hanson survived. During the week the fires continued to threaten the area, Baar's son sneaked back via dirt roads to check on the house. He discovered the overlooked birds and gave them food and water.

Baar is planning on moving, but not because of the fire, she says. Still, the experience was so traumatic she can only remember that it happened "some time in October." She recently contacted Hanson to thank him and the other animal control officers who saved her birds from starvation.

"Everybody was so, so helpful," she said. "It was a miracle that all the birds are safe. What good, good people."