SYLMAR, Calif. — Nearly 30 horses died at a ranch as wildfires rapidly engulfed thousands of acres of the southern California landscape.
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The family who owns Rancho Padillo lives up on a hill by the ranch and awoke to the Creek fire flames at 3:43 a.m. Tuesday, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The ranch, built more than 20 years ago, housed 60 horses. The family was calling horse owners with the unfortunate news Wednesday.
“All I could think about was the horses, the horses, the horses. And (the firefighters) were like, ‘Get out, get out, get out,’” Patricia Padilla
[ told the Los Angeles Times ]
. “The structures can get rebuilt, but the lives of the horses can’t. That’s my biggest heartbreak.”
"It hurts a lot because these horses are family," Shelby Hope, who has been going to rodeos at the ranch for five years, said. "They're not just horses — they're horses that we know, that we've become close to."