WMBCTV: One Week Later and the South Jersey Wildfire Still Burns

While flames still rage and the smell of smoke continues to linger, crews continue their fight against the stubborn fire as officials say it is over halfway contained. Meanwhile, local businesses say this has been a challenging time and the road to recovery is just beginning. The owners here at Out of Sight Alpacas said they were ordered by the sheriff's department to evacuate their farm, holding about 100 animals, last week as they describe their property was right in the fire’s path.

“But we stayed because it wasn’t feasible to leave and drive around with the animals,” said Herman Weigman, Owner at Out of Sight Alpacas. “We didn’t have a real good place to go except for out by Egg Harbor or Whiting so we stayed here.”

Weigman says it was luck that kept the farm safe from the fire.

“We were very fortunate the winds didn’t change and it didn’t come back this way,” said Weigman. “We just got really lucky from all the prayers.”

Although the owners decided to stay at the farm, Weigman says he’s thankful for the resources provided by the sheriff's department as well as the efforts from volunteers. He says that officials showed up with trailers and cages to help transport the animals. 

“I’m just very happy that we have volunteers and people that want to save us because we really would’ve had a problem I think if they didn’t do all of the work that they did,” said Weigman.

Weigman says, moving forward, the sheriff's department intends on putting a plan in place for any similar instances in the future.

“The sheriff's department is going to put something together I believe with all the farms around here to have a much better plan,” said Weigman.