As the wildfires besieged Los Angeles, marauding through hillside suburbs at an impossibly fast and ferocious pace, 500 miles away Garrett Needles and the volunteers with the North Valley Animal Disaster Group started making plans.
The northern California-based group specializes in helping evacuate, rescue and shelter animals during catastrophes, and has responded to some of the state’s largest and most devastating wildfires. Needles, the non-profit’s executive director, who had recently retired as an assistant chief after 30 years working for the California department of forestry and fire protection (Cal Fire), had a feeling their expertise would be needed.
