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The door bell rang continuously, as if someone was leaning on it. To add to the general chaos at 4 AM on Friday,(Feb 16), the dog was barking his head off, and a man's voice roused us to instant alertness: "Les, get up man! Get up! Your shed's on fire, it's likely going to the barn and hay shed next, get up, man, you've got to get them horses out!!!" Les and I threw our clothes on wasting precious time putting on heavy winter outer clothing, (it was -37 degrees C). We followed Bob, our neighbour, out the door of the mobile home that we live in, on our ranch. (It is located roughly 30 feet from the burning tack room/storage shed). What we saw when we got outside was a scene from Dantes Inferno.
Huge pieces of tin were falling over, leaning on the corral fence, which then started to smoulder. The fire was so hot, and the building was gutted, but still the fire raged on, feeding on the fuel in the car and two trucks that were parked inside the "shed". The front of the shed, containing all of our tack, and our boarders' tack was engulfed in flames, and bits of flaming debris were landing on the barn roof, and landing perilously close to the hay shed.
We went directly to the barn. It was dark, the hydro wires having melted, so there was no electricity, and no lights in the barn. Even so, Les went in and started unhaltering horses. I stayed outside, for the most part, to keep the horses from running back towards the fire and from going back into the barn. (Horses, sensing danger, try to go to their safe places, in this case, their stalls in the barn). As the horses came out, I swatted them in the butt with a piece of leadshank, and yelled at them to git. (Even in the dark barn, not one horse kicked at or offered to kick Les). I must say, I'm very proud of the horses, and the calm way Les got them out of the barn. The horses here know that they are not allowed to kick at people, and are not allowed to kick at anything in the barn, even in the smokey atmosphere, and the noise of the tin falling and the sirens of the Rosser Volunteer Fire Department, they still behaved as taught. We have an exceptional herd of horses, and wonderful, understanding boarders. Most contacted thus far, have asked about the horses first, not about the saddles or other material items.
Once I got the horses down the alley to the south pasture, I closed the gates to prevent them coming back towards the barn. Les, then, went back into the barn to get Beaver, our much loved and pampered 30 year old AQHA Stallion. (Beaver will be 31 on April 7th 2001). By this time, with all the chaos outside, and the fire department spraying water on the hay shed, granery and barn roof, Beaver was not overly cooperative in leaving the barn. Les literally had to find the black stallion's head by feel, to halter him and practically had to drag him outside. We tied him in front of our mobile to a stout fence post, where he waited, almost 5 hours in the -37 winchill, to go back to the barn. (Once the majority of the fire was out, the smoke had to air out of the barn before we could put the 'old man' back in his boxstall).
Like the phoenix rising from the ashes, we will rebuild and carry on. The damage estimates are in the $200,000.00 range, only a fraction of it covered by insurance. My car (a white 1991 Daytona), looks like a toasted marshmallow on the driver's side, and the insurance company wants to write it off. Les's two trucks were entirely destroyed by the fire, as well as his Lincoln (1977) Continental (next to his horse, his pride and joy). The lincoln was not insured. We lost all of our buggies and 'good harness' and many tools, too numerous to count.
Our neighbors and boarders have been wonderfully supportive in their offers to help, lend us equipment, tools, etc. Since our buggies were destroyed, a friend is phoning around looking for buggies and single and double light horse harness for us. Our local tack shop, Stonewall Saddlery, is giving our boarders discounts on things that they have to replace (everything, including grooming tools). There was only one animal that was killed in the inferno, that was our tack room cat, Clyde. We'll miss him, he didn't deserve that kind of death. Clyde this one's for you.
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