17 animals dead after fire at Alberta animal sanctuary

More than a dozen animals are dead following a fire at an animal sanctuary northwest of Edmonton earlier this week.

More than a dozen animals are dead following a fire at an animal sanctuary northwest of Edmonton earlier this week.

Early Monday morning, a fire broke out at a barn at the Ferne’s Acres Animal Sanctuary in Busby, Alta. The barn housed some of the sanctuary’s animals, as well as many animals that were owned by the sanctuary’s founder.

Founder Terra MacLean said her husband was leaving for work around 5:30 a.m. Monday when he opened the door and smelled smoke.

“He went down and looked over the edge of the hill because the barn is a little bit down a hill from the house, and he saw flames and smoke,” she explained Wednesday.

“He yelled for me. I jumped up, I yelled for the kids to come and help and we went running down there but by the time we got there, the roof was already collapsed. The structures inside were already burnt.

The barn was destroyed by the blaze. While several animals were able to make it out of the barn, 17 animals were killed, including two pot-bellied pigs, four goats, a flock of roosters and four ducks.

“The horses and cows had migrated out by themselves because the door was open, thankfully,” MacLean said. “But the goats and the pigs… based on the evidence that the fire marshal said where the fire started, the fire would have started between them and the door so they would have to walk towards to fire to get out and generally speaking, animals won’t do that.

“The ducks and chickens were locked in so they didn’t have a choice in the matter,” she said emotionally.