Family mourns pair of horses
CLEARFIELD TWP — A township family is mourning the loss of their two horses killed in a barn fire early Tuesday morning.
Dan Toomey said he saw the blaze on his 181 Schiebel Road property shortly after 3 a.m. as he was getting ready for work.
“I opened the door and saw a glow on the front of the garage,” he said. “So I ran to the window and saw (the barn) was totally on fire.”
Inside the 48-by-40 foot structure were two horses.
Toomey's wife, Becky, owned Bo, a 7-year-old Tennessee Walker. The family also watched over a 10-year-old mustang owned by Becky's sister, Jennifer Fry, of Butler.
“We were hoping they got out and were down in the pasture,” Toomey said. “Unfortunately, no such luck.”
Toomey said firefighters were on the scene about 15 minutes after he made the call to 911, but it was too late by that time.
“There was only a couple poles standing when I made the call,” he said. “It was fully engulfed.”
Toomey said firefighters believed the cause of the fire to be electrical, but he was not sure of the exact cause due to the amount of damage to the structure.
“We just don't know,” he said.
Firefighters were delayed in fighting the blaze because a Central Electric power line fell across the road and onto the barn.
“What really hindered them was they had to wait for the electric company to shut the power off,” Toomey said.
The barn, which was on the property for more than three decades, was insured.
Toomey said his wife and two teenage sons enjoyed riding their horse Bo, which they had owned since 2011. He said it is too early to say whether the family would buy a new horse.”
“It's entirely up to her,” Toomey said, referencing his wife. “If she wants to rebuild, I don't have a problem with it.”
The Herman Volunteer Fire Company led in fighting the fire while the Saxonburg and East Butler volunteer fire departments assisted.
Crews left by 5:39 a.m.
