Beloved CA Animal Sanctuary Burns Down, But Not Destroyed

VACAVILLE, CA — Thao Le’s mother always said any animal that gets to live with her and her husband Vince Ones, is a “lucky one.” On Wednesday, all 105 of them truly were. Caught in the midst of the LNU Complex Fire, the couple’s Vacaville animal sanctuary and home burned to the ground — miraculously, all the animals survived.

Lucky Ones Ranch, a play on both Le's husband's name and her mother's words, was a non-profit animal sanctuary that opened in 2016 and housed over 105 displaced animals of 17 different species, from cats and dogs to birds and llamas.

Le and her husband escaped in the middle of the night Wednesday, with the animals in tow and the clothes on her back. The couple, whose 14th anniversary is Thursday, lost everything in the fire, including their wedding album.

"It’s not like you have a special evacuation clock," Le said. "No one tells you when it's time to go. I thought 'I’m going to have to decide when it’s going to be too late or not.'"

The ranch, including their home and another home was destroyed in wake of the catastrophic LNU Complex Fire, deemed the second largest fire in California history, which has burned 352,913 acres.

With the help of volunteers, fire crews, local law enforcement and the couple's swift response to the dire situation, all animals were eventually evacuated to seven different foster locations throughout Vacaville, Fairfield and Arbuckle.

The non-profit has also raised more than $20,000 in three days on Go Fund Me to rebuild the sanctuary.

"It’s not like you have a special evacuation clock. No one tells you when it's time to go. I thought 'I’m going to have to decide when it’s going to be too late or not.'"
- Theo Le, Founder of Lucky Ones Ranch

Le, a dispatcher for the Walnut Creek Police Department, was sound asleep in her home beside the sanctuary when she was roused by the shrill whine of sirens around 1:40 a.m. Wednesday.

Moments later, the power went out and her neighbor called to tell her she was looking at an orange glow close by.

"When I heard that, I knew it was bad," Le said.

Within seconds, Le was pulling on her ranch overalls and heading for the door, she knew she had to get the animals to safety — all 105 of them.

She grabbed her headlamp and immediately called her husband, who is a Contra Costa Sheriff's Deputy.

"I screamed, 'come home, code 3.' In all of my years working as a police dispatcher, that's all I could say to him," Le said. "The lights went out and I was terrified."

Le began herding all 15 dogs into a Ford Transit van the couple had purchased in preparation for such an event. Next she turned her attention to the cats, who were non too pleased to be separated from a third dinner, Le said.

As Le worked, volunteers who regularly helped out at the ranch began to arrive on scene to help. On their heels was Solano CART, the county's emergency animal response team, who would help load one mini horse, three sheep, four ducks, a tortoise and two goats into trailers they brought.

Ones zoomed home from his shift as quickly as he could to help load seven horses, two donkeys and a holstein steer named Mason.

As the sun began to rise, people Le had never met before started to trickle in, adding extra hands to the effort. They'd seen the Facebook posts she'd climbed on top of a hill to get reception to post hours earlier, calling for help.

The ranch was not easy to find, as it sat on the five acre side of a 20 acre parcel in the wild hills of Vacaville.

“You can’t see it even if you’re looking for it,” Le said. "However, they found us and I am forever grateful for them."

It took several days to account for every single animal, as some went missing in the flurry of evacuation. For two days, two pigs were missing, but Le was able to lure them back with a trail of food and bring them to safety.

The ranch's neighbors, were not as fortunate. Of the eight alpacas living next door, three died in the flames.

Although the couple finally took shelter Tuesday with many of their animals on a property in Fairfield, Le said she has only slept 12 hours since the ordeal began.

"I still hear the sirens at night," Le said. "I've been so busy during the day but when it gets quiet at night, I can't unwind. It's like groundhogs day."

Over the last six years, Le said she and her husband have cared for the hodgepodge of displaced animals that had no home to go to, some of which have missing limbs or had neurological disorders. The couple has made sure to nurse the ones they could back to health.

"Mason was 500-600 pounds underweight when we got him," Ones said of their steer. "Now, he's back to fighting weight."

Le said she will continue to raise money and strive to rebuild the beloved sanctuary so that all the animals can be reunited.

"I've always loved animals," Le said. " I knew nothing about the large animal rescue world when we started, Lucky Ones Ranch was my little starter kit — and we plan to rebuild it."

Anyone who would like to donate to Lucky Ones Ranch can find their official Go Fund Me page here. All other pages made, Le said, do not belong to her and could be a scam.

SEE ALSO: CA Fires Latest: 1,400 Structures Destroyed, 7 Dead

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