Dr. Rosemary “Romy” Nicoletta sports a dark violet shiner around her left eye as she leads a horse into the trailer.
In all the commotion of the Spring Creek fire evacuations, an injured horse reflexively kicked her in the eye Wednesday night as she bent down to treat its wounded leg. But the veterinarian insists this is merely a symptom of the sudden chaos forced upon the animals of Costilla and Huerfano counties as the massive blaze continues to rage.
Long before the fire chased residents out of their homes, Nicoletta had urged her friends, neighbors and clients to evacuate their animals. She worried that the smoke quickly closing in would leave animals vulnerable to permanent lung damage.
Since the wildfire broke out early last week, Nicoletta has been working around the clock to transport, treat and care for the region’s four-legged creatures — opening up her practice to shelter dogs, cats and other small animals and driving trailers of horses and livestock to safety at the La Veta and Las Animas County fairgrounds.
Although the Spring Creek fire triggered the evacuation of more than 2,000 people, there was no official protocol for moving the region’s animals to safety. Instead, the brunt of the animal evacuation efforts have depended on the community’s ability to organize quickly and efficiently.
Over the last week, Nicoletta estimates that she has personally helped move a mix of nearly 200 horses and livestock — only a small portion of what she estimates to be a 2,000 animal evacuation across the region.
Upon inspecting the animals, Nicoletta has consistently encountered runny noses, coughing and wheezing — all indicators of lung injury. She worries that the exposure to the fire could cause chronic asthma and pneumonia.
“This is just the beginning, the tip of the iceberg,” Nicoletta said. “It’s just a mess — there are no good answers.”
Amidst the ashes, the new La Veta vet — she moved there in January — is also searching for animal survivors.
Wednesday afternoon, Nicoletta ventured onto the torched mountain side in search of horses that had to be left behind in the rush to evacuate. After searching for them where their corral once stood, the horses were found uninjured at the top of a mountain near the ranch.
“I am blown away,” Nicoletta said. “There are some things like this that defy logic. There’s always these little miracles.”
With the fire only 5 percent contained as of Thursday morning, the damage is far from over.
“There are whole livelihoods at risk of being lost,” Nicoletta told The Denver Post. “In a David versus Goliath kind of way, there are all these little people who are potentially going to get squashed. And that, to me, is the real tragedy.”
Nevertheless, Nicoletta remains grateful for the outpouring of support she has seen and received. At home, community members continue to volunteer to feed and shelter animals while vets from Texas and Iowa have sent truck-fulls of hay to La Veta, where the drought had already made resources scarce before the fire began.
“Good always wins” Nicoletta said. “There’s good people everywhere. God bless rural America. People just step up.”