B.C. fires: Rock Creek woman saves horses from wildfire

Residents near Rock Creek in British Columbia's southern Interior are sharing stories of how they have rescuedthe horses, livestock and pets lost because of the 37-square-kilometre wildfire raging nearby.

"It was pretty crazy. Your worst nightmare," saidlocalreal estate agentJennifer LynnBrockin aninterview with CBC hostGloriaMacarenko.

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Brock had moved nineof her horses to nearby Osoyoos to save them from a wildfire burning on Anarchist Mountain. But byThursday night, their new sanctuarywas threatened by fire as well.

"You're moving horses to be preventative and get them away from a fire that might come and get you... and then not two days later, the KobauMountain fire in Kilpoola started up," Brock said.

She enlisted a couple of friends with trailers to help her retrieve her horses from Osoyoos, about a half an hour's drive away.

"The drive down was way worse emotionally than the actual eventfor me.

"The clock is ticking, and the apprehension is building up, because you don't know how bad the fires is. You can't see it," Brock said.

After passing through a couple of police road blocks, Brock and her friendsfinally pulled into their farm.

"You didn't need a flashlight, because the flames were literally 200 feet from us, about 10 feet in the air.It was coming through, burning all the sagebrush and the grasses," she said.

"It was thick enough smoke that your eyes were burning, you were choking."

Brocksaid she managed to load up most of her horses. Instead of leaving the restbehind, she walked them in the dark for 2.5 kilometresalong with another horse that was boarding there.

"I've got a little headlamp on. That's my only light going down in the pitch black."

After a friend showed up with another trailer, Brock said police officers then asked her to rescue another two horses while she was at it.

As they loaded up the trailers with the last of the horses, it began to rain.

Residents banding together to find pets

Brockis one of many residents who has shared stories and information on social mediaabout the pets and horses they have saved or found.

Other residents have been posting messages to Facebook alerting anyone who will listen about dogs and horses found abandoned because of the fire.

In some cases, the pets and livestock have been reunited with their owners.

The Canadian Disaster Animal Response Team is also accepting animals to foster as well aslooking for more people to take in wayward pets.

Some residents had to release their horses to the wild when they were forced to quickly evacuate their homes.

To hear the full interview with Jennifer Brock, listen to the audio labelled: Woman saves horses from horrifying flames.