Horse Barn Fires

[Catherine]

There have been two bad fires in Ontario lately. In the first fire 43 race horses died. In this latest fire, a dozen Arabian horses died.

It is a terrible thing. It seems that the animals just can't be rescued once the fire starts.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/...blaze.html


I don't live on a farm and I have little experience with these things. I certainly feel for the owners of the stables and for the horses that died.
It seems that there are no sprinkler systems and  various types of heaters are being used.

It looks like there are a lot of barn fires. Not all result in animal deaths, but many do. Surely there needs to be some serious consideration of safety precautions and changes made in how things are done. The fact that there are so many fires is a sign that the safety precautions taken are not enough. Barns have hay and straw and other flammable materials. Any kind of heating system should be of a type that can't result in a fire.

Maybe the whole design of barns needs a rethink. The racing stable was a new structure and it still caught fire. If we are going to house animals we need to think over how we do it and how we can do it safer.

Too many animals have died in these terrifying fires.