Go here for the latest on the Canyon Fire 2

Laura Ann Locicero was glued to her Facebook feed, looking for any updates as a wind-driven brush fire made its way Monday morning toward the Anaheim Hills Saddle Club, where she stables 18 horses.

As the Canyon Fire 2 quickly grew in size and prompted evacuations, the 66-year-old Fullerton resident said she left work in Pico Rivera at about 11:30 a.m. to make her way to the stables to move her horses to safety.

Of those horses, Locicero transported six to Rancho del Rio stables in Anaheim, where volunteers were bringing in horses from Anaheim Hills, Orange Park Acres and Irvine Regional Park, all threatened by the Canyon Fire 2. Her other six horses were sent to Chino Hills, she said.

Equestrians with trailers pick up horses for evacuation from the Hitch’N Post store on Chapman Avenue. (Photo by Joseph Pimentel, Staff Writer)

Horses are watered while they wait for evacuation. The soot and smoke is dangerous for the animals. (Photo by Joseph Pimentel, Staff Writer)

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Equestrians with trailers pick up horses for evacuation from the Hitch’N Post store on Chapman Avenue. (Photo by Joseph Pimentel, Staff Writer)

Horses are led down Chapman Avenue away from the fire danger in Orange Park Acres. (Photo by Joseph Pimentel, Staff Writer)

Horses being evacuated from the Canyon Fire 2 cross the street at Jamboree Road and Santiago Canyon Road in Orange on Monday, October 9, 2017. (Photo by Richard Koehler, Contributing Photographer)



Diane Dodson hugs her horse, Dakota, after he was injured during transport from his barn in Orange Park Acres to the Orange County Fairgrounds. The 29-year-old paint slipped and fell when he was being taken out of his trailer at the Fairgounds. “We thought that he was a goner,” said the horse’s other owner, Greg Carbone. After treatment by a veterinarian on site Dakota survived with only a few broken teeth. “It’s a miracle that he’s still here,” Carbone said Monday, October 9, 2017. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

More than 50 evacuated horses were moved into the Action Sports Arena at the Orange County Fairgrounds. Volunteers from the county’s Large Animal Rescue Team helped with the transfer on Monday, October 9, 2017. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A volunteer takes two horses, evacuated from one of three separate stables threatend by Canyon Fire 2, from a trailer at Rancho del Rio stables in Anaheim, Monday afternoon, Oct. 9. (Photo by Nathan Percy, Staff)

Nancy Flathers, right, and Julie Maurer walk two of their seven horses to stalls at Rancho del Rio stables in Anaheim, Monday, Oct. 9. The Orange residents evacuated their horses from Orange Park Acres. (Nathan Percy, Staff)

Trailers with evacuated horses line up behind the Rancho del Rio stables, Monday, Oct. 9. (Nathan Percy, Staff)



A horse eats hay at the Rancho del Rio stables in Anaheim. Horses were transported to the stables from the Anaheim Hills Saddle Club, Peacock Hill Equestrian Center and Orange Acres Park because of Canyon Fire 2, Monday, Oct. 9. (Photo by Nathan Percy, Staff)

Sarah Allen was one of the dozens of voluneers who helped move more than 50 fire-displaced horses into the Action Sports Arena at the OC Fairgrounds on Monday, Oct. 9, 2017. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Laura Ann Locicero helps a horse out of her trailer before walking it over to a stable at Rancho del Rio, Monday, Oct. 9. (Nathan Percy, Staff)

Two horses, transported from the Anaheim Hills Saddle Club by Laura Ann Locicero, wait to be taken to stables at Rancho del Rio in Anaheim. The horses were evacuated because of Canyon Fire 2, Monday, Oct. 9. (Nathan Percy, Staff)

Dozens of horses displaced by Canyon Fire 2 were taken to the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa on Monday, October 9, 2017. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Orange County Register/SCNG)



A horse pokes its head out of a stable at Rancho del Rio stables in Anaheim, which is housing evacuated horses from three separate stables because of Canyon Fire 2, Monday, Oct. 9. (Nathan Percy, Staff)

More than 50 evacuated horses were moved into the Action Sports Arena at the Orange County Fairgrounds. Volunteers from the county’s Large Animal Rescue Team helped with the transfer on Monday, October 9, 2017. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Horses pause for a break while being led from the Canyon Fire 2 on Monday, October 9, 2017. (Photo by Joseph Pimentel, Staff)

Volunteers from the Shea Center for Equine Therapy helped move more than 50 fire-displaced horses into the Action Sports Arena at the OC Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa on Monday, Oct. 9, 2017. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

More than 50 evacuated horses were moved into the Action Sports Arena at the Orange County Fairgrounds. Volunteers from the county’s Large Animal Rescue Team helped with the transfer on Monday, October 9, 2017. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Orange County Register/SCNG)



Ailee Sun and Sarah Allen were part of a group of volunteers who helped move more than 50 horses into the Action Sports Arena at the OC Fairgrounds during the Canyon Fire 2 on Monday, Oct. 9, 2017. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

More than 50 evacuated horses were moved into the Action Sports Arena at the Orange County Fairgrounds. Volunteers from the county’s Large Animal Rescue Team helped with the transfer on Monday, October 9, 2017. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

“Everybody pulled in in droves,” Locicero said of the number of people arriving up to help. “People we didn’t know just showed up with trailers to help.”

The OC Fair & Event Center was housing more than 100 horses by the end of the day and expected to have more come in over night. Even more evacuated horses were going to the Los Alamitos Race Course and smaller stables around Orange County. The Fairplex in Pomona has opened to house overflow.

Goats, pigs, sheep, even a steer were also among the rescued, said Terry Moore, communications director for the OC Fair & Event Center.

“We’ll take them as long as needed,” she said of the evacuated animals. “We have the space.”

The center had plenty of volunteers to help with the animals, but could use donations of horse stall panels.

In Orange Park Acres, several people chose not to evacuate so they could make sure their horses were safe.

Monday afternoon, neighbors tried to organize trailers to evacuate their horses or they walked the animals out to safer areas.

“They’re definitely in danger,” said Erin Williams, who lives on Frank Lane. As she spoke, Williams watched a man with a garden hose on his roof trying to keep the vegetation wet.

Williams acted quickly and got her Palamino Quarter Horse, Romeo, on a trailer. He was taken to the Rancho Del Rio stables, where the owners expected to fill their 70 stalls and house more horses in a barn and in four arenas on site.

Williams and her husband, Craig, spent Monday afternoon trying to help neighbors who were out of town.

“They’ve got two horses, a goat, a pig and two dogs,” Williams said. “There are a bunch of neighbors staying behind to help.”

In an SUV tugging a large trailer, Heidi Daniel drove from Whittier to help with the evacuation.

“You know the horse community, once one person calls out for help, we all come out,” she said, hauling out three horses.

“The reason why I’m doing this is because if I was in the same situation and this happened to my horse, I would panic,” she said. “I just want to do whatever I can to help.”

Fran Klovstad, 56, who works in Norco, said she received an alert on her phone about the fire nearing her Orange Park Acres neighborhood. She immediately came home to evacuate her four horses – Justin, Aggie, Giggles, and Pebbles.

The horses’ eyes began to water and turn red, a sign the smoke was burning their eyes, Klovstad said. “We worry about their lungs.”

“We can make a decision to leave, but the horses can’t,” said Klovstad, who was calling neighbors and friends to help evacuate other stuck horses whose owners were out of town or not home. “They are trapped. They depend on us. They are family.”

Earlier in the day volunteers were racing to evacuate about 150 horses from the Peacock Hills Stables at Irvine Regional Park, which was under mandatory evacuations.

Volunteers had brought about 30 trailers to the park and were loading up horses several at a time to move to stables in Lake Forest, Anaheim and Costa Mesa.

“You can see the flames burning over the hills toward the park,” said Marc Hedgpeth, a volunteer with the Large Animal Response Team, which formed from experiences with the 2007 Santiago fire and then the 2008 Freeway Complex Fire.

West Irvine resident Mike Collins and his son, Neil, also helped evacuate horse from the Peacock Hill stables.

Mike Collins, whose neighborhood was threatened by the Santiago fire, said luckily when it seemed the park would become engulfed the winds shifted and for the time being saved the area.

“The fire was coming over the ridgeline toward the park,” Mike Collins said. “People were really panicked.”

Julie Maurer of Orange, along with two others, transported seven horses from Orange Park Acres to Rancho del Rio.

“It was much tougher than we anticipated,” she said. “You don’t know what to take or how much time you have.

“It’s important to know how to get the horse into a trailer ahead of time,” she added. “You need to have a plan set.”

Locicero said she was grateful that Rancho del Rio stables stepped up to take in horses. She remained concerned for the stables at the Anaheim Hills Saddle Club, where she moved her horses two months ago.

“It’s a beautiful barn surrounded by trees,” she said.

(Staff writer Greg Mellen contributed to this report.)