Llama Evacuated from Fire Zone Dies

A llama that had to be evacuated during a fast-moving fire that approached Knoll Drive on July 25 died a few days after the blaze, a neighbor said this week.

Sharon and Varnum Fletcher had to evacuate their home on Knoll and neighbors came to help take care of Frisco the llama during the fire.

"Sharon thought that the smoke inhalation and stress was too much" for Frisco, said neighbor Amanda Frye, who along with her 14-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter took the llama away from the fire area while crews worked to extinguish the blaze.

Frye said she received a letter from Sharon Fletcher this week.

"Dear Amanda and family,

"Thank you sooo much for taking Frisco away from the awful fire zone . . . You all are such priceless, dear and treasured friends . . . No one else would have offered such an heroic rescue . . .

"God used those devoted firefighters to protect every house on Knoll Drive and spared all the other homes and businesses in the area too . . .

"However, despite all valiant efforts, our Frisco was never the same after the fire and we cried and cried when he died a few days later!

"Poor Frisco . . . He must have had too much stress, too much fear, too much shock and too much smoke inhalation before he was evacuated . . . Of course, Varnum had to evacuate people first . . . He helped get C.C. Ivy out since she's recently had hip surgery and then me and then Frisco."

C.C. Ivy is a nieghbor of the Fletchers. Sharon Fletcher, a former San Bernardino County deputy sheriff, walks with a cane because she was injured on the job struggling with a prisoner in the 1970s.

"The smoke was really really thick by that time," Sharon Fletcher said in her letter to the Fryes. "He was such a precious part of our lives every day . . . Thank you for trying your best to save him . . . Our loss to our family and all the 'Special Ones' and children who have enjoyed him is unfathomable . . .

"We sure miss him a lot, but we'll always remember how wonderful you all were and that you tried your best to help him through that awful traumatic ordeal . . . He was loved 'til the end."

was reported just before noon July 25 in an open area between two businesses on Outer Highway 10 in Yucaipa, and it quickly spread uphill toward several homes on Knoll Drive.

Cal Fire and Redlands fire crews responded within minutes of the first 911 call.

The fast-moving blaze forced evacuations on Knoll, scorched three to five acres, and destroyed an outbuilding and a travel trailer, fire officials and residents said.

Someone using a power saw , and sheriff's Bomb-Arson and Cal Fire investigators were assigned to follow up because it started in Yucaipa's jurisdiction, Redlands Fire Battalion Chief David Graves said.

No human injuries were reported during or after the fire.

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