- It was a Sunday, October 8th,
and we were settling down for the evening
and almost in a slow fashion the wind started picking up.
For whatever reason, I got up,
I didn't hear anything, I didn't see anything.
I just got up.
And I looked out over the valley
and there was a wall of fire that was coming.
I had a thought at that time, instantly as a matter of fact,
that I better be making very good decisions,
because this is a critical situation.
I recognized the seriousness of it
and I turned to my wife and I said, 'Honey get up,
we have got to get out now.'
So we found out that a tree had fallen just below us,
had fallen over the road, so at that point
there was no access down.
- [Dispatcher] So there are people up at the pet cemetery
but they're going to be there,
there's no way for us to get that out right now, okay?
- Okay. - Alright, thanks.
- [Caller] Is the lower half covered by fire?
- [Dispatcher] Yes, the lower half is covered by fire
at about 3,000 block.
- The fire had reached our place and there was
a wall of flame that seemed to be like 100 feet high.
The buildings are all gone.
There were several out buildings,
probably in total of seven or eight buildings.
My house and our office.
We were fully insured, but at the same time
you're not prepared for this kind of devastation,
which is complete.
So it's been a struggle getting everything together with
the county and going through the process.
But the park, because of the green grass and the fact that
the direction wasn't quite in that area, was spared.
And so the park itself is fine.
A lot of people thought that everything was gone,
and that we were out of business.
So we kept hearing this from people and veterinary hospitals
that use our services,
so we really had to spread the word,
and it was quite a challenge but we kept everything,
as far as the business going, rolling,
and kept with our services and I think it was a heroic task
on all of our employees to keep this thing going.
The public was overwhelming in their generosity
and their concern for us, and that made a big difference.
- This cemetery will be in business
50, 60, 70 or 100 years from now.
Surely beyond the lifetime of anybody
who ever buried a pet here.
And I think this is all that concerns the people
that have buried their pets here.
(light guitar music)
- Keep that idea of building this place up,
of fixing it up,
and eventually it will be something that
nothing else can compare with,
that idea keeps the whole thing together
that concept is what keeps us together, I think.
- We get emails from time to time from people
that see the movie and comment on it.
I actually had girls emailing me,
wanting to, you know, touch bases and stuff like that
because I was playing my guitar out there.
So that was, you know, for a young kid
that was pretty flattering.
But this thing had legs like you wouldn't believe.
I mean, it just kept going and going.
I have a 29 year old son,
we are third generation, our location is premier,
there's nothing like it in the United States.
We have the integrity and respect
from our customers going back,
because we've been around so long.
So I fully expect to just keep on keeping on,
and I'm doing this now for my son so he can carry on.
And we are moving forward,
we're gonna have a new building here, new facilities here,
it'll all come together with the landscaping and everything.
And hopefully we do a good job and create something
as beautiful, if not more, that I can feel good about.
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