A fire tore through the attic and roof of Forehand Animal Sanctuary in McLoud, Oklahoma, about a week before September 12, sending smoke billowing through the house and forcing nearly 50 dogs to move outside with founder Patti Forehand and her husband Robert. No animals were lost in the blaze, but the kitchen and dining room were destroyed and the front bedroom suffered smoke damage, leaving the rural rescue scrambling for food, building materials, and basic supplies.
Forehand told News 9 that she called for help as the house filled with smoke, describing the scene as the home being engulfed. She said everyone survived and no animals were lost, even as the fire burned through the attic and out the roof. According to the same report, the McLoud Fire Department believes the fire may have been caused by an electrical problem.
The 30 animals who had been living inside the house now live outside alongside Forehand and her husband, per the outlet's account. The sanctuary no longer has cat litter to use, and Forehand is asking the community for cat food, dog food, building materials, a roll-off dumpster, and a generator. Around 29 of the sanctuary's dogs remain available for adoption or fostering, while the rest of its close to 50 dogs are already spoken for, the station reports. Those interested in helping can reach Forehand directly at 405-406-2382.
Volunteer Firefighters Battled Flames Through the Roof
The blaze was fought by the McLoud Fire Department, a mostly volunteer agency based at Station 1 on South 3rd Street, according to Responserack. McLoud itself is a small Pottawatomie County community of roughly 4,606 residents spread across about 18 square miles, part of the Oklahoma City metro area, per World Population Review. Forehand Animal Sanctuary sits on a residential property at 30252 Lakewood Circle, south of Interstate 40 near 89th Street and Fishmarket Road, according to a Facebook post shared in the aftermath of the fire.
In social media updates relayed by regional rescue partners, Forehand said responding firefighters kept her from re-entering the burning structure to try to retrieve trapped animals, even as all of the trapped dogs and kittens ultimately survived the fire inside. Emergency crews reportedly barred re-entry because of heavy smoke and active fire pushing through the roof.
Regional Rescues Are Stretched Thin
The fire hit at a moment when animal welfare resources across central Oklahoma were already stretched. Pottawatomie County has no centralized county-run animal shelter, leaving nonprofits such as Saving Pets At Risk to handle much of the region's rescue and low-cost spay/neuter work, according to Saving Pets At Risk. Just months earlier, Oklahoma City Animal Welfare was forced to temporarily pause intakes in June after receiving more than 500 animals from a single law enforcement operation, a sign of how little slack existed in the system, as reported by KGOU.
That squeeze has fed into cooperation among independent rescues rather than government agencies. In late August, Healing Paws Cat Sanctuary in Wetumka, roughly 60 miles east of McLoud, agreed to take in two mother cats and seven kittens to relieve the displaced facility, according to a Facebook post shared at the time. Before the fire, Forehand Animal Sanctuary had already been working to bring its dog population down from 57 to somewhere between 35 and 39 dogs available for adoption, per an earlier Facebook update from June.
Rural Counties Still Lack Animal Control Authority
The gap in official animal-control infrastructure isn't new. During this year's legislative session, Oklahoma lawmakers considered House Bill 3902, which would have expanded animal control authority to rural counties with populations under 200,000, but the measure failed to pass before adjournment, according to a Facebook post referencing the state's animal welfare law. Current state law largely limits county-level animal control authority to large urban counties, leaving small operations like Forehand's to rely on volunteer firefighters and community donations rather than a government safety net.
Public safety infrastructure in McLoud's fire district has seen some improvement in recent years. Emergency communications across the department's 66-square-mile response area were upgraded after a dedicated telecommunications tower, sponsored by the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, was built in 2019 to eliminate rural dead spots, according to the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. For now, Forehand and her husband are focused on rebuilding what the fire took and keeping dozens of dogs fed while they wait outdoors for the sanctuary's home to be repaired.
