Mountain Fire displaces hundreds of residents and their pets

CAMARILLO, Calif. — Uriel Hernandez owns a farm in Ventura County.
 
He just adopted a puppy that belonged to a homeless person who lived in the area impacted by the fire.
 
“He seemed like he was more concerned taking care of the puppies and his animals than—you know—himself,” said Hernandez, who owns Seacliff Farms.
 
The fire has displaced hundreds of people and their pets.
 
Ventura County Animal Services says 440 animals were brought to them for safekeeping. 
 
But some pets are still missing, and others have been hurt in the fire. 
  
Randy Freidman says the scenes coming from the Mountain Fire have been heartbreaking. 
 
But he says Camarillo Animal Shelter has done a phenomenal job in triaging the hurt animals until they recover. 
  
“Unfortunately, we had a cat who came in with severe burns. And it's very sad. You know, we're just now starting to hear some of these stories now that people are kind of against getting back into their homes,” said Friedman.  

Friedman says a lot has improved since the first couple of days of the fire.
 
 “It was just the speed of this fire really took everybody by surprise. The Santa Anas just blew them right through. And the whole back there, you can see that was all scorched. And we were sitting here watching water drops. And at certain times we were asking ourselves, was... was this fire going to come to us here at the shelter?” said Friedman.
 
As for Hernandez, he says stumbling upon his new pup was divine timing. 

“The smog kind of became the clouds and the sun kind of hidden behind the the smog, though a sudden you got Sunny. So I just said, ‘Hey, why not Sunny?” said Hernandez.  
 
Sunny has definitely been a bright light during a trying time.