OHIO barn fire kills 2 people and 43 Horses

Ohio Barn Fire Kills 2 People, 43 Horses

by Kirsten Taylor (Subscribe to Kirsten Taylor's posts)
Dec 9th 2009 @ 11:00AM Filed Under: Pets News
Flickr/Wolfgang Staudt

Two men and 43 horses were killed early Saturday when a barn fire broke out at a harness-racing track at the Warren County Fairgrounds in Lebanon, Ohio, according to the Dayton Daily News.
The state fire marshal has ruled out criminal intent, but hasn't yet released details explaining how the deadly fire began. The call came in at 4:50 a.m., and dozens of firefighters from surrounding communities rushed to the scene.
The firefighters kept the blaze from spreading to the other barns on the property, but the fire raged for hours. Initially, reports said 65 horses had been killed, but that number was later revised to 43, according to CNN.com.
The identities of the men killed in the fire have not been confirmed, but employees of the stables told the Associated Press that the individuals were believed to be veteran horse groomers. It was not clear whether they were working at the stables in the early morning hours, or if they may have slept there.
Determining what caused the deadly blaze could take weeks, Shane Cartmill, a spokesperson for the Ohio State Fire Marshal, told the Dayton Daily News. "We are very early on in the investigation," he said.
Horse owners and regulars at the adjacent Lebanon Raceway track were stunned by the loss. One of the horses that perished was Hoosier Flash, a six-year-old mare who had finished first at the Lebanon Raceway just hours earlier.
Horse owner Nancy Curtner lost her yearling filly Rosie in the tragic fire. "It still seems like it's not true," Curtner told the Associated Press. "We have a lot of memories in that barn."