Bond Fire Devastates Rancho Soñado, Home Of Orange County 'Inside The Outdoors' School Program
SILVERADO CANYON (CBSLA) — A facility where more than 100,000 students were able to explore the unspoiled local ecosystem of the Santa Ana Mountains was lost to the recent Bond Fire.
Rancho Soñado was the headquarters for the Orange County Department of Education's Inside the Outdoors environmental education program, which was gave the county's students a chance to explore the surrounding canyon. Two of Rancho Soñado's three structures were burned down by the wind-whipped wildfire, including one of the on-site residences occupied by Inside the Outdoors' operations manager and her family, who were forced to evacuate suddenly.
No OC Department of Education staff members were injured, but a number of animals that were housed on the property did not survive the fire.
"We can rebuild the buildings and nature will recover, but we will never get over losing Animal Ambassadors of our ITO family to the Bond Fire," the program's officials said in a statement.
Four "animal ambassadors," including two young gopher snakes and two toads, were recovered.
A complete assessment of the damage is not known yet due to ongoing fire activity. Rancho Soñado, which covered about 110 acres in the Santa Ana Mountains, has been the site of field trips and campus to some 100,000 students since it became the official home of Inside the Outdoors in 2006.
A GoFundMe has been set up on behalf of the Inside the Outdoors Foundation to help support educational programs. A portion of the proceeds will also support Rancho Soñado's caretaker and her family after they lost their home and most of their belongings in the fire.
