Animal care officials confirmed Thursday that they are investigating the death of 29 horses at a Sylmar ranch during the fast-moving Creek fire last week.
The Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control issued a lengthy statement last week in which they shared their officers’ efforts to save horses at Rancho Padilla. The statement did not include details about an investigation.
The ranch boarded its own horses, but also rented stalls to horse owners.
“We are actually looking into it and investigating the entire situation,” Don Barre, a spokeswoman for the department, said Thursday. “We can’t say anything about the investigation until it’s over.”
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The fire was first reported at 3:43 a.m. on Dec. 5. The family who owns the ranch said they awoke to flames and were instructed by a fire crew to leave.
The department received a request for help at 8:45 a.m. Animal control officers rescued as many horses as they could, and broke the padlocks off 10 stalls, the department said in a statement.
A member of the Padilla family has stated that she told owners who boarded their horses at the ranch not to put locks on their stalls. Twenty-nine horses perished.
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In an interview last week, Danny Ubario, deputy director of operations for the county’s animal control department, said the department was trying to set up an interview with the ranch family.
The department wants to determine if the family had an evacuation plan in place and understand all the details of what happened, he said.
“I don’t know who the actual locks belong to. I can only presume the horses were padlocked and each different owner had their own set of locks,” Ubario said. “I don’t really know.”
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It is unclear what the outcome of the investigation could be.
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Virginia Padilla, left, who lost 29 horses at her Padilla Ranch on Little Tujunga Road is comforted by horse trainer Shelby Hope.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Maria Kirkland, right, waves and calls for her husband who walked down a canyon to check on their home in Indian Springs Ranch.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Gail Thackeray is distraught over loss of her home and two horses after the Creek fire swept through Indian Springs Ranch.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Smoke from the Creek fire hangs in the air above the San Fernando Valley as seen from the 14 Freeway Wednesday morning.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
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Marinwood firefighter Brandon Selvitella knocks down smoldering embers on a hillside off Wentworth Street in Sunland-Tujunga.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
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Oscar Martinez saddened by the death of 29 horses at Padilla Ranch.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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The Creek fire burns into the night in the Shadow Hills.
(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
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A firefighter monitors the Creek fire as it burns a house inear the intersection of Johanna Avenue and McBroom Street in Shadow Hills.
(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
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A home and cars in the path of the Creek fire are engulfed in flames near the intersection of Johanna Avenue and McBroom Street in Shadow Hills.
(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
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A structure burns on McBroom Street in Shadow Hills.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Judy Hofmann-Sanders can only watch as her home is consumed by the Creek fire along McBroom Street in Shadow Hills.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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A structure burns on McBroom Street in Shadow Hills.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Firefighters battle the Creek Fire as it burns near a church along Foothill Boulevard in Sylmar.
(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
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A vehicle is engulfed in flames as the Creek Fire burns near the intersection of Johanna Avenue and McBroom Street in Shadow Hills.
(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
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Jessica Farrell evacuates her mother’s dog Hazel as the Creek fire threatened homes at the end of Esko Avenue in Sylmar.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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A firefighter battles a blaze on McBroom Street in Shadow Hills.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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A structure burns on McBroom Street in Shadow Hills.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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The sun peers through a bank of smoke from the Creek Fire in Sunland.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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Firefighters hit hotspots while trying to save homes along Hillrose Street from the Creek fire in Sylmar.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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Ziggy Hosn hits hot spots on his brother’s property along La Canada Way in Sunland.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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Jarrald Ingram, 33, hits hot spots where embers from the Creek Fire were threatening homes along along Bengal Street in Sunland on December 5, 2017. Ingram, who lives in downtown Los Angeles, was trying to make his way to his father’s home and couldn’t get there because of a police barricade. He decided to help defend the homes in the area with a garden hose.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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A firefighter stands next to a house that’s completely engulfed in flames in the Creek fire along Hillrose Street in Sylmar.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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A structure burns on McBroom Street in Shadow Hills.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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LAPD officers evacuate a pair of horses as the Creek Fire burns along Foothill Boulevard in Sylmar.
(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
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A structure burns the path of the Creek Fire near the intersection of Johanna Avenue and McBroom Street in Shadow Hills.
(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
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Judy Hofmann-Sanders survey’s the area after her home was consumed by the Creek fire along McBroom Street in Shadow Hills.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Smoke from the Rye fire obscures Interstate 5 near Magic Mountain (lower right) in Santa Clarita.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Gina Donaldson evacuates her horse as the Creek fire bears down on Foothill Boulevard in Sylmar.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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Firefighters try to stop a portion of the Creek fire from jumping the 210 Freeway in Sylmar.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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Peter Hernandez waters down the roof of a friend’s house as the Creek fire approaches in Sylmar.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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Caltrans workers move cones against a backdrop of the Creek fire along Wheatland Avenue in Sylmar.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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Two firefighters confront flames along Kagel Canyon Street in Lake View Terrace.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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A woman evacuates her horse as the Creek fire bears down on Foothill Boulevard in Sylmar.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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Firefighters try to control a pile of railroad ties and a trailer burning to protect the structure near Dexter County Park in Lake View Terrace.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Firefighters try to control a pile of railroad ties and a trailer burning to protect the structure near Dexter County Park in Lake View Terrace.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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A fireman keeps an eye on surrounding structure near a smoldering tree in Kagel Canyon in Lake View Terrace.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Firefighters try to control a pile of railroad ties and a trailer burning to protect the structure near Dexter County Park in Lake View Terrace.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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A horse that got spooked by flames and fell behind a structure is rescued from the fast-approaching Creek fire in Lake View Terrace.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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An early morning brush fire that broke out in the Kagel Canyon area above Sylmar on Tuesday charred thousands of acres and damaged homes.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Alex Grigoryants uses a hose to protect his home, located on Kagel Canyon Street in Lake View Terrace, from the Creek fire.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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A firefighter climbs a hill to confront flames along Kagel Canyon Street in Lake View Terrace.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
The department has conducted other investigations, including one on cock-fighting and another earlier this year regarding 80 snakes and a pool full of alligators at a Thousand Oaks home.
In San Diego County, at least 46 horses died at San Luis Rey Downs, a thoroughbred training facility, during the Lilac wildfire.
The County of San Diego’s Department of Animal Services said they are not investigating the deaths at the training facility.
“I’ve heard about the stories that horses were locked in stalls and things like that,” said Daniel DeSousa, director for the county’s Department of Animal Services, about the fire at Padilla ranch. “That was not the case down here. This fire moved so rapidly through the San Luis Rey Downs area and through that whole riverbed — people were trying to do heroic efforts just to try and rescue these horses.”
The thoroughbred facility in Bonsall accommodates 495 horses and at least 450 were there when the fire struck on Thursday, according to a spokesman for the California Horse Racing Board. Officials said about 360 surviving horses from San Luis Rey Downs were moved to the Del Mar Fairgrounds.
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“I don’t think anybody could have saved all these horses, based upon how fast this fire was moving and how destructive it really was,” DeSousa said.
Brittny Mejia is a Metro reporter covering federal courts for the Los Angeles Times. Previously, she wrote narrative pieces with a strong emphasis on the Latino community and others that make up the diversity of L.A. and California. Mejia was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2021 in local reporting for her investigation with colleague Jack Dolan that exposed failures in Los Angeles County’s safety-net healthcare system that resulted in months-long wait times for patients, including some who died before getting appointments with specialists. She joined The Times in 2014.
