As the Gold Mountain Fire pushed toward Ridgway, staff at Second Chance Humane Society made a plan they hoped they'd never need. On June 29, staff asked for emergency foster volunteers, in case they had to evacuate. Within 48 hours, that contingency plan became a reality.
"Sure enough, 48 hours later, it was necessary for us to evacuate because of how close the fires were and smoke and everything else," Gilman said.
On the morning of July 1, the shelter officially announced it was evacuating. Thanks to the network of volunteer fosters, every animal in the shelter was relocated within three hours.
Rather than waiting for an official evacuation order, shelter staff decided to start placing animals early out of caution.
"We don't want flames 100 yards down the road when we're trying to get people in to evacuate our shelter," Gilman said. "In an abundance of caution, we made the call to evacuate long before an evacuation call was ordered, in part because of the flames, in part because of the smoke."
Gilman brought significant disaster-response experience to the situation. Before joining Second Chance Humane Society, he spent a decade with the American Humane Association responding to disasters across the country. He said the Gold Mountain Fire marked the 56th disaster he has worked, following responses that included Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
The fire ultimately came within a few miles of the shelter, and Gilman said a shift in the wind could have put the buildings at risk. He credited firefighters with protecting the facility, and the animals have since returned.
"We're 100% confident that the shelter is safe right now," he said. "The firefighters have done a terrific job."
Although the immediate danger has passed, the shelter is still recovering from the effects of heavy wildfire smoke. Gilman said the organization plans to seek community support to purchase additional air purifiers because smoke permeated the buildings.
The evacuation also highlighted another need: reliable transportation.
The shelter owns two vans evacuations, but Gilman said both are aging and unreliable. During the fire, he reserved rental vans because he was not confident the shelter's own vehicles would be dependable.
"We're going to be entering a drive to see if we can get the community to help us with two additional vans so that we're not worried about whether our vans work or not," he said.
Looking back on the evacuation, Gilman said he was struck by how quickly the community responded when the shelter needed help.
"Once in a while, we need help from the community, and this was one of those times," he said. "The community came through with flying colors."
