PHELAN >> Dozens of exotic animals weathered Tuesday night’s rampaging Blue Cut fire at a family-run High Desert sanctuary.

Joel and Chemaine Almquist, owners of the Forever Wild Exotic Animal Sanctuary, spent part of Tuesday afternoon putting birds and other smaller animals in crates to get them out of the smoke. But moving the dozens of animals, including more than two dozen big cats, wasn’t necessary.

• Photos: The Blue Cut fire burns 30,000 acres and is still out of control

“The firemen did an excellent job of detouring the fire around us,” Chemaine Almquist said Wednesday. “All of the animals are safe, all the humans safe.”

Forever Wild will be closed through Thursday, at least, while the Almquists and the shelter staff clean up.

The facility was within the boundaries of the mandatory evacuation area in the tiny unincorporated community Tuesday, but the danger has passed now, according to Almquist.

“We’re fine,” she said. “It’s smoky out here, but we don’t have any fire danger here.”

But Tuesday night, rumors spread on social media that the Forever Wild staff had abandoned the facility, leaving the animals to their fate. San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department deputies ended up having to stand guard over the facility, after some social media users wrote that they intended to break into the facility and liberate the animals.

• Map: Where the Blue Cut fire in the Cajon Pass is burning near the 15 Freeway

“It was a little disappointing in our community members that they would spread rumors like that,” Almquist said.

Family members were threatened on social media for their lack of updates as they worked to secure their animals. Letting social media followers know what was going on was less important than making sure the dozens of animals at the shelter were safe and healthy, according to Almquist.

“We had a lot on our plates as it was,” she said.

The facility has a “solid plan in place” in case an evacuation for the facility and the animals becomes necessary.

“Anybody that knows me and Joel, they should know us better that we would never say ‘Hey, let the animals fend for themselves,’ ” Almquist said.

In 2009, the Almquists’ home and facility were remodeled by the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” television show. Before the remodel, the Almquists and their children lived in a leaky double-wide trailer with no heating or air conditioning, spending their money instead on creating and running their animal sanctuary, caring for abused and neglected exotic animals.

Although the shelter would always get a bump in donations every time the episode was rerun (the show, which was canceled in 2012, at one point was shown in 69 countries), just caring for all of the animals at Forever Wild — more of whom were dropped off there, thanks to the publicity the show generated — meant they had expenses of about $8,000 a month in 2010.

At that time, Forever Wild was home to 25 big cats, including 10 tigers, three cougars, three bobcats, five servals, two black leopards, a lioness and a Siberian lynx, as well as 10 parrots, 50 venomous reptiles (including cobras and black mambas), a mule deer, four horses, four llamas, eight tortoises, a tarantula, a rabbit, a frog, an iguana and a number of abandoned dogs.

“We would sacrifice anything for any animals here,” Almquist said.