On November 9, a helicopter was flying over the Woolsey fire in California when it received notification of some folks who needed rescue. After a careful landing in a rough area *real* close to the fire, they picked up a few civilians… and their dogs. And from what I saw, there was zero hesitation on the part of the chopper crew about picking up those pets, even though one was a large mastiff who was clearly dubious of the whole “get on the helicopter” idea.
Bravo, sirs. I can’t imagine ditching my critters in an evacuation. During Hurricane Katrina there were tales of people who were forced to abandoned cats and dogs because the people driving the boats wouldn’t carrying them. Now… for something like a horse… yeah, there are weight limits. But if I was being rescued from a flood or a fire, I’d happily let some strangers smelly panicky dog sit on my lap.
Parking an expensive house on top of a hill sounds great until you realize you live in fire country, the hillside is loaded with very flammable brush, it’s been a drought for years and fires go *uphill*. I wonder how many of these folks, when they rebuild, will build out of concrete and adobe with large elevated water tanks to hose down the house at the last minute.