Patches the McKinney Fire puppy reunited with owner
In the outskirts of a Northern California town, the scorched remains of homes were still smoldering on Saturday following the McKinney Fire's rampage through the area. The blaze had moved quickly, forcing thousands from their home and some pet owners to make difficult decisions.
In the early hours of Saturday, July 30, photojournalist Jonathan Rivas of AIO Filmz walked through the rubble of the town of Klamath River in Siskiyou County, California, surveying the damage from the wildfire, when he discovered not every pet's fate had been tragic.
Rivas had made it roughly five miles into town when he decided to turn around, his path blocked by trees, power lines and other hazardous conditions, and he noticed a large property along Highway 96, Rivas told AccuWeather in a phone interview.
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A chimney stands at a destroyed building as the McKinney Fire burns in Klamath National Forest, California, on July 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) |
He lingered a moment more to take some video when he heard a yelp that he mistook for a deer or some other wildlife in the area. Deciding to ignore it, he continued filming until a small animal came bounding over to him.
"As I'm walking up to a vehicle that had burned down to get another shot, I saw this little puppy just come running out," Rivas said.
The white patches of the puppy's coat were marked with soot and his whiskers were singed, but he wiggled in excitement and let Rivas pet him upon their meeting. After first checking to see if the puppy was injured, the photojournalist took him to his car, where he gave the puppy water and a place to sleep.
"Normally, when I'm at a wildfire and I'm surveying damages, it's very eerie, it's very quiet," Rivas told AccuWeather. "It's just the aftermath of everything when a wildfire sweeps through. I've never seen anything alive in a wildfire zone after a wildfire destroys a town or a neighborhood."
Rivas brought the puppy to the Rescue Ranch animal adoption center in the city of Yreka, an area that was also devastated by the McKinney Fire, upon the recommendation of fire officials. In a Facebook post, the center said Tuesday that it has taken in 160 dogs escaping wildfires in less than three days.
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James "Mac" Benton was reunited with Patches at the Rescue Ranch in Yreka, California. (Natalie Golay/Rescue Ranch) |
The McKinney Fire sparked on Friday afternoon in the Klamath National Forest and has since exploded into the largest wildfire of the year for California at over 58.600 acres by late Thursday afternoon, local time. The fire is 10% contained and has claimed the lives of at least four people, according to the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office.
The story of the puppy who Rivas rescued, aptly named Patches, came to a happy conclusion when he was reunited with his owner, James "Mac" Benton.
The Rescue Ranch shared on its Facebook page that Benton had lost his home to a fire tornado that had torn through his property. He had been carrying one of his dogs to safety and had thought that his other dogs, including Patches, had been following him. But when he turned around, they were gone.
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James "Mac" Benton was reunited with Patches at the Rescue Ranch in Yreka, California. (Natalie Golay/Rescue Ranch) |
Benton tried to go back for the four dogs, but the scorching air made it difficult to breathe, and he had to leave.
With Patches safe, he's now "hoping against hope" that his other three dogs, a German shepherd and two other puppies, also made it out of the fire, Rescue Ranch said in the post. Benton was in the Highway 96 and Walker Bridge area, and any news of the puppies or German Shepherd can be sent to the Rescue Ranch in Yreka.
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