Man originally from Indiana hauls scores of animals to safety from Los Angeles wildfires
CHICAGO (CBS) -- As the wildfires have raged in the Los Angeles area in recent weeks, a man originally from Northwest Indiana has been working tirelessly to haul animals out of harm's way.
Brady Heiser is from Crown Point, Indiana, and now works as a teamster—hauling loads for Hollywood studios. But when the fires broke out, Heiser started hauling horses, cows, and other animals instead.
As the fires started raging, Heiser put out a call on social media for people with horse trailers that he could hitch to his truck. He then hooked up with a group that sent out addresses, and got on the road—sometimes encountering dangerous situations.
His first call was to the Eaton fire—and he had to drive over a burning tree.
"People's homes are just gone, you know, and I'm watching it happen. I can feel the heat through my window. And you know, like, you know, there's a tree in front of me on fire laying in the street. I was like, s**t, or I was like, man, I don't know what to do, so I put it in four-wheel drive and drove over it," he said, "and you know, here I am now with about 4,000 repairs. I need to get done with my truck, but you know I made it there."
But once Heiser arrived, he had a convoy of other rescuers rounded up several horses and brought them to equestrian centers. He made multiple trips back and forth—and got home around 4 a.m. after starting at 6 p.m. the evening before.
Driving through debris to get to the rescue scenes was worth it, Heiser said.
"I could sit there and cook and become a liability. or I can see what this GMC's got and just put it to the floor and see what happens," he said, "and it was, it was it was scary."
Heiser said he has never ridden a horse in his life—and his closest interaction with a horse before the rescues was petting one and "praying it doesn't bite me"—but he rescued numerous horses from the wildfires.
He also rescued a mini-Highland cow and a mini-horse, Truffles and Snuggles, and a 175-pound potbelly pig named Fancy Pants.
"I've never met anybody named Fancy Pants that can fight like this pig did. But she was screaming and hollering, and me and my buddy, Josh, and the homeowner had to drag her 200 feet down from the backyard to the driveway to put her on my trailer," Heiser said, "and yeah, we got her. We got her out to put the Pomona Fairplex. We got her safe."
Heiser said he also got a call to rescue 75-plus horses, as well as donkeys and peacocks, from the Kenneth fire, which burned more than 1,000 acres in the West Hills area before it was contained. He also rescued tortoises, llamas, emus, pigeons, and parrots.
Brady advised that the people of Los Angeles affected by the fire are in great need. He said donations for animals have been plentiful—to the point where places he has been volunteering are overstocked—but the families who have lost everything are often not so fortunate.
"Just a lot of the basics—toiletries, socks, underwear, T-shirts, pants, shorts. I mean, books for the kids. you know, there's coloring books, crayons, just anything to give them any kind of normalcy," he said. "The animals are pretty well taken care of for now. but it's the people that need the help right now."