Ten Hanoverian horses have been killed in a barn fire in Ontario, Canada.
The fire broke out at Highlands Farms, Cumberland Beach on Sunday morning (7 March) at about 4.30am.
“I’m pretty shell-shocked,” owner David Lowrey told local press. “You can’t put it into words.
“Because of extremely high winds and a lot of hay in the barn it even caught some of the window sills on my house on fire. It was carrying ash as far down as a mile.”
Mr Lowrey’s eight-year-old championship horse was killed in the fire.
“She was just a spectacular horse,” he said. “I just couldn’t part with her for any kind of money — she was priceless.”
Mr Lowrey was alerted to the fire by his neighbour who was outside with his dog.
The fire is estimated to have caused $400,000 worth of damage.
Twenty-five firefighters attended the scene.
“When we got the call, it was fully involved,” said fire chief Eric Dowell. “The roof was already gone.
“The horses would have perished long before we got there. It was basically a surround and drown kind of a situation.”
The cause of the fire is unknown but it is not being treated as suspicious.
