Safety at the shelter

The Pierce College Campus was a safe haven for those who were displaced by the Hill and Woolsey fires.

When the evacuations started Friday morning, the American Red Cross, Operation Blankets of Love and the Los Angeles County Animal Care and Control were among the first to assist the evacuees.

Large animal evacuees such as horses, goats and two tortoises were kept at the Equestrian Center.

At the rate the fires were travelling, the path of the destruction forced numerous cities and neighborhoods to evacuate.

This resulted in the Equestrian Center reaching full capacity the same day Pierce started accepting animal evacuees.

At the other end of the campus, human evacuees were housed in the North and South Gyms during the start of the evacuations.

For the first time in the college’s history, it is a designated American Red Cross Evacuation Center.

The first day Pierce accepted evacuees, the gyms housed about 480 people.

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(L-R) Adelaide Flores, Lilyana Cruz, Allan Cruz and Kevin Cruz play video games while sitting on cotts in the South Gym on campus, which was converted into a shelter for those fleeinng the Hill and Woolsey fires on Nov. 9, 2018.

Middle Left: Fire smoke is visible from the farm at Pierce College in Woodland HIlls, Calif. Nov. 9, 2018. Photo by Danielle Padilla

Middle Right: Two horses are evacuated from the Hill and Woolsey fire to Pierce College’s Equestrian Center on Nov. 9, 2018. Photo by Natalie

Bottom shoes that were donated are lined up in a room with donated necessities for the Hill and Woolsey fire evacuees sheltered in Pierce College’s North Gym on Nov. 11, 2018.