Horrible barn fire in Ontario. 40 standardbreds perish.

[jvanrens]

Just found out this morning that Chantal Mitchell who had the one horse that didn’t die in the fire has bought one of our former horses that was claimed off of us a few months back, and then claimed off that person by a friend of ours (who we bought him from in the first place). I hope she does well with him, he’s a great little Cam Luck son with a huge heart (and almost the spitting image of his sire though not quite as fast). Thankfully my daughter paddocked him last night and got to say goodbye to him, he was on the trailer this morning heading to his new home.

Just checked the GFM and it’s up to $454,333 and the auction raised over $25K!

[FalseImpression]

BEst wishes to Chantal!!
So impressed with the donations coming in from everywhere. Many from the States, but all over Canada and Europe too.
$468K when I checked… they will make it to the $500K

We had a chat last night at the barn… the lack of sprinklers… well, most barns are in the country, on wells…it would be difficult to have sprinkler systems at some locations.
Also, as my BO, reminded me… most barns are on wells and the fire departments are most of the time, volunteers… who may take a bit longer to get to the barn than a full fledged fire dept. Many many times, in case of a barn fire, it is impossible to stop it… and many departments have to bring in water trucks…
Fire/smoke detectors are nearly impossible to keep functioning due to the dust… and again, it still would probably too late to save a barn, maybe some horses… but due to the fact that you almost have to lead them out one by one…
Sad for sure.

[FalseImpression]

They did it… $507K… they reached their goal… impressive to see the donations from many STD racing associations/breeders/trainers…

Well done!

[jvanrens]

Just over $521K now.

Nice to see Ben Wallace’s groom is one of the finalists for the Ontario Outstanding Groom Award http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/news/1-27-16/outstanding-groom-award-finalists.html I think she’s a shoe-in and I’d rather see her win over the other finalist.

[FalseImpression]

Update
http://www.chch.com/classy-lane-recovering/
The last I heard the fund was $670K!!! They are rebuilding and studying the installation of sprinklers and better smoke detection equipment.
Insurance paid for the rebuilding so all the money raised goes to the trainers/workers, etc. Many have rebuilt their strings too.
Opening May 1st!!!