Barn fire - Rittenhour Equine Centre - many reiners lost

[Old_Mac_Donald]

Taken from Reining Life Facebook page:
𝐓𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐝𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲

Today, June 8, around noon the Rittenhour Equine Center (former home of Clinton Anderson), home of Brant Performance Horses and Priest Performance Horses had a fire break out. Initial reports are that the fire started in the attic of the building and quickly spread to the stall areas. A few horses were able to get out, but before anyone could get back into the barns they were engulfed in flames. Estimates right now are that 77 horses have been lost in this fire. Eric Priest received severe burns trying to run into the blaze to save horses and will be in the hospital for the next few days recovering. Please keep the trainers, their families, the staff, and all of the owners and connections of the horses and the facility in your prayers.

UPDATE: Belle Center Barn Fire - Peak of Ohio

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So very sad.

[Bogey2]

I was just seeing this on FB, just awful.

[B_and_B]

I saw this on the large animal rescue page on FB I follow. Absolutely terrifying, this wasn’t the middle of the night. The horses that were rescued, from what I understand, were the few on cross ties waiting to work. Plenty of staff on hand, but it exploded SO fast.

[endlessclimb]

Oh wow, what a tragedy. Wonder what caused it, and what fuel was nearby for it to go up so fast.

[Rackonteur]

How horrible.

[2DogsFarm]

Article says “attic”, but I wonder if that = hayloft.
Barn I boarded at had a fire in the haybarn that burned the metal pole building to the ground in the 15min it took for FD to arrive.
3 imported horses were in quarantine in the same barn, trainer got 3rd degree burns getting them out.
We rode around pools of melted metal & gave the area a wide berth to avoid the nails/screws in the ground for months.

[endlessclimb]

It’s possible. But that facility has been in existence for a long time, so unless something failed it had to be the hay itself combusting no?

[Rackonteur]

I wondered “hayloft?” too.
Horrible tragedy.

[2DogsFarm]

Hay put up wet caused the fire I described.
Sad note:
Barn staff claimed they’d noticed “a smell” in the barn. But nobody connected that to the hay.

I witnessed a neighbor’s barn burn to the ground in about the same amount of time.
Got home from errands, noticed dark smoke (barn about 1/4 mile South of me - across fields), called 911.
By the time FD arrived - same ~15min - it was engulfed.
TG, no animals inside.

[roseymare]

If you have ever talked to anyone with a barn fire they say you cannot believe how fast they spread in modern metal barns.

[roseymare]

electrical as well

[luvmyhackney]

Oh my heavens. How tragic.

[trubandloki]

So very tragic.

[WavyRider]

This is so strange to me. It seems like there shouldn’t be enough fuel for this to happen. What causes it to spread so fast?

[roseymare]

They often have a thin layer of insulation. Especially those built 20 or so years ago.

[Djones]

I doubt that those barns had overhead hay storage. DH and I speculated that an attic fan or other large fan that’s been in place a while failed, overheated, and sparked.

[trubandloki]

Everything in a barn is flammable. Plus there is a lot of air movement. Happy fire that gets hot very fast and just burns until it runs out of things to burn.

[WavyRider]

Of course. The question I had was specifically why do the metal pipe barns go up so fast.

[Bluey]

@WavyRider

Of course. The question I had was specifically why do the metal pipe barns go up so fast.

Maybe many barns that burn so fast are metal clad wood framed barns and warehouses?
Firemen call those, especially the ones with wood trusses, firemen’s tombs.

As some have mentioned, most that burns in barns is the interiors, many wooden stalls, shavings, hay, tack rooms, etc.
Some wood framed barns use wood with retardant in them, Morton one, but they still burn hot.

We built all metal barns and metal stalls, but still have shavings and hay and a wood framed tack room, all that would burn and, depending how hot, would melt metal.

Safest barns are those kept clean, as much flammable material kept on a separate barn and barns kept meticulously clean and uncluttered.

That barn burning and all those horses is a terrible tragedy.

[WavyRider]

@Bluey

Maybe many barns that burn so fast are metal clad wood framed barns and warehouses?
Firemen call those, especially the ones with wood trusses, firemen’s tombs.

Yikes, that is terrifying.

Such an awful tragedy