Westbrooke Farm had three barns on the property but the fire only affected one, the Boarder barn built in 2001. Fourteen fabulous horses were lost – retired and young, Friesian, Thoroughbred, QH, Arab, Oldenburg, Rocky Mountain, and Welsh. Never mind their breed, the most important part was that they were much loved by all their owners. Luckily 19 horses, including two of our boarder horses, survived in the older two barns thanks to the considerable amount of excavation work around the barn. We were within days of breaking ground on a new covered arena. The fact we had cleared the land around the barn may have prevented the fire from spreading to the surrounding woods and the other barns.

Based on my description and their investigations, the fire marshals officially classified the origin of the fire as “undetermined’ but think it was due to a serious lightening storm the previous week. There was no visible damage from the storm. Everything electrical worked fine and life continued on for another week without any visible sign of trouble. The fire marshal’s belief is the system shorted out and the breaker box failed. They said the temperature of the fire instantly reached up to 1700 degrees and all the oxygen was depleted. Although I tried for as long as I was able, the horses didn’t suffer after their first breath of superheated air.

We have become somewhat expert at electrical stuff over the last weeks. There were a couple things we learned that I thought I would pass on. First, lightning can strike several hundred feet away from your house or barn and still damage your electrical infrastructure. Second, it is quite normal for the compromise in the electrical system to manifest itself up to weeks later. That was news to us.

We learned a couple other things worth passing on to all our friends.
• Read the fine print in your insurance policies and understand your coverage. Clauses are often ambiguous. Ask your agent or the General agent to clarify your questions.
• Review your coverage amounts and make sure they are adequate because construction costs have gone up dramatically due to oil and steel price increases. Due to steel price increases, we have been told that the cost to build the steel structure in the barn will be almost triple the cost in 2001.
• Make sure you declare the tack and equipment value at adequate coverage
• Check and recheck your wiring frequently, especially after electrical storms
• Locate your closest fire hydrant and have that information available if you need to contact the fire department
• Retro-fitting your barns for fire suppression options is not that expensive, considering the ramifications of not doing so

We are determined to make something good come out of this. We will rebuild the barn as soon as we physically can and it will be a state of the art facility with the best safety features available. We are still doing our research but will pass on what we learn to our friends in the horse community around the world. Due to the exposure and interest in this tragedy, hopefully other horse operations will make their facilities safer than they are today, if that is possible

We received permission from our county animal control to bury the horses on the farm. We have been busy building a permanent memorial for the horses that perished in the fire. A lot of the work has been done but there is more to do. The burial area has been landscaped, including sod and a number of trees, and a concrete sidewalk will be poured this week. Each horse will have a grave marker and a life size horse statue will be part of the memorial. It will be something special when completed.

As we have gotten older and lost parents and friends, we have learned to appreciate every day; live like it is our last day and pray to God it is not. In our situation, with death comes life. Seven days after the fire, a Palladio Filly, Phoenix, was born to our Hall of Fame/Argentan granddaughter Half Pass Midnight. Half Pass lost a brother and half sister in the fire. Phoenix was born a few weeks early but apparently couldn’t wait any longer to get here in an attempt to cheer everyone up. It was just what we needed. Phoenix is the first of six foals we expect over the next few weeks.

This new life encourages our resilience, helps us move on with productive activities and made everyone’s pain just a little less!

Thanks again for your support and good wishes!

Jennifer Schwickerath
Westbrooke Farm