Turtles, tortoises take refuge from Thomas Fire at Atascadero City Hall
Saturday afternoon, in a long, cement corridor in the basement of Atascadero City Hall, a giant, brown radiated tortoise slowly reached out one scaly, clawed foot in front of the other, locked into a head-to-head race with another giant, brown radiated tortoise headed down the corridor on a parallel track as volunteer Ashleigh Sinclair looked on, a smile spreading across her face.
๏ฟฝWhich one is going to win?๏ฟฝ Sinclair said. ๏ฟฝIt๏ฟฝs going to be close!๏ฟฝ
The animals were just two of more than 100 turtles and tortoises that recently had a nice, relaxing vacation in Atascadero thanks to the massive wildfire that threatened their home at the Ojai Turtle Conservancy earlier this week. According to Paul Gibbons, Chief Operating Officer at the Turtle Conservancy, the destructive Thomas Fire in Ventura County burned structures right across the street from the facility, forcing conservancy staff and volunteers to pack up and evacuate the animals in the middle of the night.
๏ฟฝThe fires flared up Monday evening,๏ฟฝ Gibbons said. ๏ฟฝIt was coming toward us, so in the middle of the night, basically just after midnight Monday and then into the wee hours of Tuesday, our team started to go into evacuation mode and they started packing animals. By mid-day Tuesday they were all on trailers and the fire had grown to 25,000 acres, so we took off.๏ฟฝ
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Photo from Atascadero News .
