In 2017, a California wildlife-park owner defied a wildfire evacuation to protect 1,000 animals; by morning, he had lost no animal, bird or structure

On the night of Sunday, October 8, 2017, a wildfire closed in on Safari West, a wildlife preserve near Santa Rosa in Sonoma County, and its 77-year-old owner, Peter Lang, remained there after officials ordered an evacuation. KQED reported that Lang said officials wanted everyone to evacuate and that he could not leave. Lang worked late into the night fighting small fires amid 1,000 animals or more. He stated that by dawn, he hadn't lost a single animal, bird, or building at the preserve, even though his own house had burned down a mile down the road. That account comes from Lang himself and has not been independently audited.Evacuation order at Safari West, night of October 8, 2017According to The Washington Times, the preserve had emergency plans for earthquakes, floods and wildfires, including fires that could arrive with as little as three hours' notice, but officers arrived on Sunday night and gave the workers only 15 minutes to evacuate. The Visit California profile describes how Lang evacuated his wife, guests and employees, then stayed behind to defend the preserve. Alone on the grounds, he connected hoses to put out spot fires that started when embers fell into the grass. KQED reported that he also had to drive cornered nyala antelope through a ring of fire.The preserve's animals: about 1,000 across 98 species, 2017The Washington Times reported that the preserve housed about 1,000 animals of 98 species, and Visit California listed giraffes, cheetahs, rhinoceroses and hyenas among them. Later sources give slightly different figures, but these numbers describe the preserve in October 2017. Lang bought the former ranch in the 1980s and turned it into a wildlife preserve. According to Visit California, he and his zoologist wife, Nancy, started a captive breeding program, and the preserve opened to visitors in 1993. The Washington Times also reported that about 150 employees worked at the preserve and at least 11 of them lost their homes in the fires.Lang's report: no animals or structures lost, home a mile away destroyedLang, according to KQED, said that he had not lost any animal, any bird and any building, but he lost his house. On the day when the evacuation took place, Lang was at home with his wife one mile away from the reserve. The aviary was the most vulnerable of all buildings. Lang told KQED that if a burning branch had fallen on the aviary, it would have burned down. Some of the employees were able to get inside despite the fact that there was a power outage. Fred Dickerson, one of the employees, told KQED that they were able to account for every animal, even those that they released for flying. Fox News reported that Safari West posted on Facebook that its fences were still intact and that all animals were contained, accounted for and safe. KQED also reported that after the fire, Lang and his wife called the park their home.NIST case study, 2007 Witch Fire: 74 of 245 homes destroyed in The TrailsThe National Institute of Standards and Technology examined a community affected by two 2007 fires in its report, A Case Study of a Community Affected by the Witch and Guejito Fires. The community, The Trails in Rancho Bernardo north of San Diego, had 274 homes, 245 of them within the fire perimeter. Of those, 74 were completely destroyed and 16 were partly damaged, according to NIST. The report describes ember attack, both direct and indirect, as a contributing factor in the destruction of homes in the community, and NIST's summary said embers ignited about two-thirds of the destroyed homes. The report notes that defensive measures had been taken at about one-third of the houses and that 15 of the 16 partly damaged houses had been successfully defended.California Agriculture survey, 2025: 505 producers, 65 percent sheltered in place or defended propertyThe study Farming and ranching through wildfire: Producers' critical role in fire risk management and emergency response, published in California Agriculture in 2025, surveyed 505 California farmers and ranchers affected by wildfires between 2017 and 2023. Sixty-five percent of producers said they sheltered in place or defended their property at least once when a wildfire approached. Of those who evacuated, 75 percent returned as soon as possible to assess and reduce damage.Among the 146 livestock producers surveyed, 32 percent said they had to evacuate their livestock. The authors noted that evacuation can protect animals but can also add to their stress and health problems. In addition, 77 percent of the 303 producers near wildfires gave direct support to neighbors and emergency responders, and 47 percent said that support included creating firebreaks and defending properties directly.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.