(Monsey-WABC, May 23, 2007) - A fire tore through a barn in Rockland County, trapping a group of horses inside. At least nine of the horses did not survive.
Eyewitness News reporter Ken Rosato is live in Monsey with more. This was a horrible fast moving fire that firefighters themselves described as a terrible tragedy.
The fire broke out inside the barn at Shamrock Farms at 222 Ackertown Road just before 2 a.m. It became pretty involved very quickly as the entire barn went up in flames. Neighbors were alerted by the smell of the fire and the sound of the horses trapped inside.
It took about 45 minutes to put out the flames.
Two of the horses were rescued, unfortunately, nine of them perished inside the fire and at least one is missing.
Firefighters could not believe how strong and how large fire was when they arrived on the scene.
One assistant chief describes the scene...
"We just had to try and get the animals out, which we were unsuccessful doing. No one was able to get into the building because of the radiant heat....,"
In some cases these stables were used to board horses that people in the city owned, who would come up on the weekend's. Right now it is not known which of the horses died, if they were privately owned by the stable or by someone else.
Fire officials will continue to investigate the cause of the fire.
Republished courtesy WABC-TV
