Determined Lytton wildfire survivor rescues pets from remains of burned down home

LYTTON, B.C. (NEWS 1130) — After waiting days without help, a Lytton woman managed to get into the village, past police checkpoints, to rescue her pets from the devastation.

Tricia Thorpe’s home was destroyed in the fire, and her farm animals were left behind — including her Pyrenees dogs and puppies.

Since the fire broke out on June 30, Thorpe has been trying all possible avenues to be reunited with her animals, trying to “appeal to people’s heartstrings.” She says she couldn’t since her animals had no food or access to water.

Thorpe told NEWS 1130 that she was able to convince RCMP to let her into the village Monday, days after the fire destroyed most of the structures.

“I literally showed up at the roadblock and told them that I wasn’t leaving until I had my animals.

“It wasn’t really fair to the RCMP and the security, but it worked. I mean, they’ve got hearts too. They’ve all got pets.

“I’m just so happy that the average person has that humanity.”

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Once she got the clearance, she, her husband, two police officers and a member of BC Livestock Evacuation walked down and were welcomed by the dogs.

A week ago, firefighters were able to get to the site and reported back to Thorpe that they only found seven out of nine puppies, sheep, and her alpaca.

She was also told that two puppies of a litter of nine had died along with one adult livestock Guardian dog, Thorpe’s dog, her six goats, four to five sheep, all her chickens, guineafowl and peacocks.

But to her surprise, “we found nine puppies.”

“And we found our cat Simba,” she says. “He is 13. He’s a badass cat. So that part was fantastic.”

She says she was able to get her Pyrenees dogs out as well as nine pups, a 13 year old cat, sheep and alpaca. Sadly, a herding dog died on the way to Kamloops – likely from smoke inhalation. The pups are now in the process of being adopted. @NEWS1130 pic.twitter.com/9mkjyR0iW4

— Tarnjit Kaur Parmar (@Tarnjitkparmar) July 11, 2021

However, there were still animals that did not make it, which made the trip difficult.

“Probably the most heartbreaking thing was our male Livestock Guardian dog. He died en route to Kamloops. We didn’t make it with him.”

The Livestock Guardian dog passed away from smoke inhalation and stress according to Thorpe.

“That was gut-wrenching.”

Five of her sheep and all alpaca were able to be evacuated.

Thorpe, her husband and animals, are temporarily staying with a friend in Kamloops who has a large farm for the sheep and alpacas.

“The goal is that we can stay there … while we figure out how rebuilding Lytton is going to look like for us. I haven’t got as far as the whole long term yet.”

Thorpe says right now most of the pups are in the process of being adopted.

Tango is being adopted by one of the women who helped Tricia Thorpe rescue her pups out of Lytton. She fell in love with Tango, the smallest pup of the litter, who also had scorched paws. This is how the SPCA tried to help treat her feet – she’s doing much better now @NEWS1130 pic.twitter.com/x6yLs5U04K

— Tarnjit Kaur Parmar (@Tarnjitkparmar) July 11, 2021

Late last week, 41 animals were rescued from Lytton after the BC SPCA was allowed access to the evacuated, fire-ravaged community.