Barn Fire Kills 6 Horses for Boyd and Silva Martin

01 June 2011

Monday morning at 2am on 30th May Boyd and Silva Martin's barn which housed some 11 horses burned to the ground. Boyd and Silva are based in the USA in Pennsylvania where they relocated to from Australia some 3 years ago. The barn that burned down belongs to another ex-Australian, Phillip Dutton, from whom Boyd leases these facilities. Living in the flat immediately above the barn is yet another Australian in Ryan Woods. Ryan noticed early last Monday morning smoke coming up through his floorboards and consequently jumped out of bed with nothing more than his undies on and charged down the stairs to the stable block. The hay which was below Ryan's flat yet still above the stabled horses was already a roaring inferno. Ryan raced from one stable to the next throwing open the doors and in so doing received serious burns to his feet and hands. Unfortunately many of the horses were polarised with fear and proved very difficult to get out of the stables to almost impossible. There were functional fire hoses and fire extinguishers properly positioned all around the barn and yet not one of them was activated as the fire intensified so quickly there was just no time. By the time Boyd arrived on the site the whole barn was ablaze and the fire fighters who had arrived moments before were forbidding anyone to go back into the barn. Boyd desperately enquired as to whether Neville Bardos his World Championship horse had been one of the horses to make it out. Once it became clear that Neville Bardos was still inside the fireball that once represented the barn Boyd charged back in through the blazing doors. Right on Boyd's heels was Phillip Dutton and the two of them found Neville Bardos in the back of his stable which was completely alight refusing to come out. The two boys physically dragged the horse out and so saved Neville Bardos's life. It was just moments later that the whole barn collapsed. Neville Bardos along with 3 other horses are recovering in a local very smart horse hospital. Unfortunately 6 horses didn't make it out and everybody is seriously traumatised. There is a Fire Relief Fund in the States which is very simple for us in Australia to donate to click here to go to the webpage. Also John Lechner here in Australia is very involved in directing donations to the Fire Relief Fund and to go to his webpage click here.