11 terrified horses perish in stable fire

Anne Lindberg

Frightened by the blaze at the Pinellas Park barn, some of the horses struggled against would-be rescuers.

PINELLAS PARK - As fire consumed a barn at Anvil Acres Stables late Thursday night, friends and neighbors worked in vain to rescue the horses. But horses fear fire. They would rather remain in the familiar surroundings of their stalls than escape to safety.

"Those horses, you can't drag them out. You cannot get them out," said Keith Sabiel, who came to help when he heard news of the fire.

Some people were trying to drive the horses out of the barn, he said. Others put halters on the animals and tried to lead them out.

At least two horses were so terrified, they ran back into the barn and died.

In the end, 11 horses perished in the worst tragedy in the Pinellas Park horse community that anyone could recall.

Anvil Acres owner Mary Ellen Smith struggled to save boarders' horses while eight of her own died, said boarder Annette Perez, whose 8-year-old American paint, Max, survived.

"She put her customers' horses first," Perez said. "She put us first."

James declined, through spokesmen, to comment. Her losses included mares, babies and a champion American paint stallion known as Dennis.

Sabiel said two equine vets worked by flashlight to treat horses that were injured.
One was taken to the Surgi-Care Equine Clinic in Brandon. Another 12 survived, although some of those were injured.

Two people also were injured. A firefighter received minor burns when embers fell inside the back of his coat. He was treated at the scene. A teenager suffered smoke inhalation while trying to rescue some of the horses. He was taken to Largo Medical Center.

One of the two barns on the property, 10505 60th Ave. N., was destroyed. Financial estimates of the loss in horses and other property was unavailable.

Pinellas Park fire Chief Ken Cramer said he could not remember another barn fire during his time with the city. Cramer has been chief for 26 years and acted as a volunteer with the Fire Department before that.

The cause of the fire was unknown Friday, Cramer said. Officials were focusing on a pile of wood shavings stored in a stall at the east end of the barn.

No evidence of accelerants was found and arson is not suspected, Cramer said. He said the shavings, which were covered by black plastic, could have spontaneously combusted. Dry wood shavings are commonly used to bed horses' stalls.

Investigators also were exploring the possibility of an electric malfunction as a cause.
One of the dead horses was Jester, an American Paint belonging to Patty Fiedler. Jester and Fiedler had been named to Pinellas Park's volunteer horse patrol in July. American paint horses, commonly called pintos, are white with another color.

Echo, another horse belonging to Fiedler, survived the fire but was burned. Two other equine members of the patrol, Rooster and Porter, also escaped.

"It's devastating . . . the number of horses that were killed," said Pinellas Park police Capt. Sandy Forseth, who oversees the horse patrol.

Cramer said James told him that she and her boyfriend were watching the Republican convention Thursday when they heard the horses kicking and making a ruckus. They looked outside and saw flames running through the barn.

They called for help about 10:30 p.m. Firefighters from Pinellas Park Fire Station 33 arrived about five minutes later. Flames were consuming the barn.

It took about 50 minutes for units from Pinellas Park, Lealman, Largo and Seminole to substantially extinguish the fire. It took until after 2 a.m. to put out all the remaining embers and hot spots, Cramer said.

The news of the fire spread rapidly Friday through Pinellas Park's tightly knit horse community.
Concerned horse folk gathered Friday at Anvil Acres to help James sift through the ruins where the carcasses still lay and to care for the surviving horses.

Celeste Tingler said she and two other nearby horse owners brought sandwiches for lunch. Tingler helped run cool water over a blistered horse.

"It just breaks your heart," Tingler said. "You've got to do something, (but) you don't know what. Then, you don't want to do the wrong thing. You just go and do."

Other barn owners were reassessing the safety of their property.

"It's every barn owner's nightmare. It's not a very original comment but that's the one thing you live in fear of," said Evie Wolfe, owner of Silver Stirrup Stables on 62nd Avenue N.

Barns are like tinderboxes, made of wood and filled with flammable material ranging from hay to wood shavings, she said. Wolfe said she was considering installing a sprinkler system even though she was not sure that would help if a fire broke out.

"It's just so scary, so scary," Wolfe said. "It's just horrid. Just horrid."

Copyright 2004 Times Publishing Company
St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
September 4, 2004 Saturday
SOUTH PINELLAS; Pg. 1B
800 words

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