Sandy Valley Ranch taking in horses, livestock from Ca., wildfires

Roughly a four-hour drive from the midst of the Southern California wildfires, Nevada’s Sandy Valley Ranch is offering accommodations for horses and other livestock endangered and displaced by the disaster.

The vast 160-acre area near Pahrump is known for its western style dude-ranch amenities, including horseback trail rides in a desert setting.

Livestock manager Luis Gonzales recently spoke to the Pahrump Valley Times about extending resources to those in need in the aftermath of the fires.

“We are volunteering and the community here got together where it’s a lot bigger than what we expected,” Gonzales said. “We’re getting calls from Las Vegas and other areas by volunteers that are trying to help with donations. We actually got a call from the military, who want to set up a base with tee-pees and tiny houses.”

As generous as his offer is, Gonzales said that so far, no individuals or entities have accepted the invitation to use the facility, but that may soon change as another wildfire, known as the ‘Hughes Fire,’ broke out this week in northern Los Angeles County.

“At the moment, it seems that there are no horses, animals or people in need,” Gonzales noted. “Everybody has been taken care of in California, but we’re staying on top of it and in contact with everybody. Right now, we’re getting about 15 or 20 calls every hour with questions for our facilities, and if we’re ready. At the moment, everything seems to be pretty well-handled, because we haven’t received any horses yet.”

As a result of Sandy Valley Ranch’s offer to assist California residents, many other individuals in Nevada have also decided to extend a similar hand.

“It’s amazing how by us volunteering, there’s now many people in the community, Las Vegas, Pahrump and outside areas of Los Angeles that have called us to help by using their big trucks,” Gonzales exclaimed. “There are people out of Las Vegas that are set up with their horse trailers and trucks, willing to go pick up the horses and bring them to us, so everybody’s volunteering and creating a really big team that’s pretty much on call and that’s really, really nice from the whole community. Right now, we can take 100-plus horses. We have the feed, the water and the corrals. We also have veterinary care and other help to move horses around and put them in safe zones.”

On a related note, the wildfires have spurred mass mutual aid responses from first responder agencies including those from Colorado, Wyoming and Nevada.

In fact, Pahrump Fire Chief Scott Lewis told the Pahrump Valley Times that local crews were initially on standby in terms of responding to assist in extinguishing the fires.

“We had held our crews back just to ensure that we had appropriate coverage back here,” Lewis said. “We were placed on a standby list but we were not required after that.”

As of Thursday afternoon Jan. 23, the Hughes Fire, just north of Los Angeles, has burned more than 10,000 acres and was declared approximately 14-percent contained, according to officials.

Sandy Valley Ranch is located at 1411 Kingston Rd. The facility can be reached at (702) 242-0955. Donations are welcome.