Florida barn fire kills 21 horses, rekindling awareness & bad memories

Notice of high-end blaze involving horses of the rich & famous eclipses attention to blaze killing 10 times as many cattle

REDDICK, Florida––The early morning fire on that killed 21 horses at Roberts Quarterhorse Farms on April 8,  2025 in Reddick,  Florida,  was not huge as barn fires go,  certainly not compared to the April 1,  2025 fire at the Leuze Dairy Farm in the upstate New York village of Philadelphia that killed at least 200 cows and calves.

`           However,  begun by a trash fire that blew out of control at about 9:00 p.m.,  the Leuze Dairy Farm blaze rated just a seven-sentence report from WWNY television in Watertown.

Intense local coverage of horse barn fire

The prominence in horsey circles of the Roberts family by contrast brought intense local coverage and even some national attention.

The media attention may help to rekindle awareness of fire prevention at animal facilities,  and has revived memories,  as well,  of some of the darkest episodes in equestrian history.

“Records from the Marion County Property Appraiser show that the Roberts Quarter Horse Farm is registered to Roberts Corporation,”  reported Jeremiah Delgado for the Ocala News.

“Mary Roberts and her late husband, Ralph Larry Roberts, Sr., built the farm decades ago to breed and train quarter horses.  Roberts, Sr.,  passed away in 2023,”  Delgado recounted.

“Hundreds of millions”

“Over the years,”  Delgado continued,  “the Roberts family has spent hundreds of millions of dollars developing various parts of Ocala and Marion County.

“In 2021,  the Roberts family celebrated the opening of the World Equestrian Center in Ocala. That billion-dollar facility is the largest equestrian center in the United States and is one of only two in existence in the country,  joining another facility in Ohio that is also owned by the Roberts family.

“The family also created the Golden Ocala Golf & Equestrian Club,  a 1,200-acre private community with a bevy of luxurious homes,”  Delgado wrote.

“The Marion County Fire Marshall,  along with personnel from the State of Florida Bureau of Fire,  Arson and Explosives,  and the federal Bureau of Alcohol,  Tobacco,  and Firearms,”  Delgado said,  are “conducting an investigation into the cause of the blaze.”

Third bad local barn fire since 2002

Earlier,  Austin L. Miller reported for the Ocala Star-Banner that “Officials believe the fire was caused by an electrical malfunction.  No foul play is suspected.”

“The fire occurred in a 10,000-square-foot barn,  causing the roof to collapse.  No people were injured in the blaze,”  Miller said.

“Marion County,  known as the ‘Horse Capital of the World,’  has experienced similar tragic barn fires in the past,”  Miller recalled.

“In 2012,  for example,  nine horses were killed in a barn fire at McKathan Farms in Reddick.  An employee at the farm was burned and had to be hospitalized.

“Ten years before that,  22 horses belonging to clients died when a barn caught fire at Ocala Stud Farm,”  Miller added.

World Equestrian Center statement

Said the World Equestrian Center in a prepared statement:

“We are aware of a tragic incident that occurred on private property personally owned by the individuals who also own World Equestrian Center.  While the private property is entirely separate from and not affiliated with World Equestrian Center business or operations,  we extend our deepest sympathies to those affected.

“As this is a personal matter, we will not be providing further comment.”

Arsons recalled

While as Miller reported,  “No foul play is suspected,”  any barn or stable fire involving high-priced horses and prominent owners tends to evoke recollections of a series of arsons at horse facilities between the mid-1950s and the early 1990s that eventually brought the conviction of at least 25 people for horse-related arsons and insurance fraud,  and the convictions of five more people for related murders.

James A. Blottiaux,  now deceased,  was in 1999 sentenced to serve 100 years in prison for killing equestrian champion Cheryl Ann Rude,  22,  with a car bomb in 1963,  as hit man for one of the alleged founders of the arson ring,  Silas Jayne,  who died in 1987.

Rude was an accidental victim.  Silas Jayne allegedly hired Blottiaux to kill his brother,  George Jayne.  Silas Jayne was convicted of conspiring to murder George Jayne after the latter was killed in 1971.

Richard Bailey,  deceased in 2023,  was convicted in connection with the 1977 disappearance of candy heiress and animal welfare patron Helen V. Brach,  66,  who was investigating the horse killings.

The arson and murder investigations also brought the conviction of former stable owner Kenneth Hansen, for allegedly murdering three Chicago boys in 1954,  after sexually assaulting one of them.

(See All the money in either racing or breeding horses is gambling money.)

Scorpion Horse Ranch

More recently,  at the opposite end of the horse ownership economic scale,  a February 21, 2025 fire at an unregistered stable in southwest Philadelphia,  called the Scorpion Horse Ranch, killed two horses,  but construction workers from a nearby job site rescued 12 horses,  a goat,  and a pig.

“Officials said the stable was operating illegally on a redevelopment property owned by the city,”  WPIV-TV reported.

Updated the Pennsylvania SPCA Danville Center on March 18,  2025,   “An unknown individual went onto the property and started a fire that burned the makeshift stables with animals in them to the ground.  A $10,000 reward is now being offered for any information that leads to the successful arrest and prosecution of the individual who started the fire.”

Of the rescued animals,  the Pennsylvania SPCA said,  “We are happy to report that everyone is on the right track for a clear bill of health. Some of the horses are even available for adoption.”

Plaza Latina

All animals,  a variety of horses and pigs,  were rescued by firefighters from what WTVG of Toledo,  Ohio described as “a massive barn fire” in Blissfield,  Lenawee County,  on April 5,  2025,  but “The 80 x 200 barn was engulfed in flames and is a total loss.”

The worst U.S. fire involving animals thus far into 2025 appears to have been a January 3 blaze at the Plaza Latina shopping center in northwest Dallas,  Texas.

“The 579 animals in the Plaza Latina pet shop,”  including chickens,  hamsters,  two dogs and two cats,  “died from smoke inhalation,”  Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesperson Jason Evans told media,  adding that “The flames from the fire never reached the animals.

“The cause of the fire was not immediately determined and is under investigation,”  Evans added.

Animal Welfare Institute

According to the third of a series of periodic Animal Welfare Institute report on barn fires,   released on January 9,  2025,  “More than 1.5 million farmed animals perished in barn fires in 2024,  accounting for 60% of the deaths reported in the last three years,”  2022-2024.

The 2024 toll included “The largest number of animal deaths from a single barn fire in more than a decade:  1.2 million hens in Illinois.

“Additionally,  an exceptionally large number of cattle died in barn fires during the last three years,  due primarily to a single 2022 fire at a Texas dairy operation that killed 18,000 cows.  This was the deadliest reported fire involving cattle since AWI began tracking barn fires in 2013,”  said Animal Welfare Institute spokesperson Marjorie Fishman.

(See What blew the $#@! out of the South Fork Dairy Farm, killing 18,000 cows?)

“All told, at least 8.3 million farmed animals have died in barn fires in the last 12 years,  but the real death toll could be substantially higher,”  Fishman said.  “Fire departments and municipalities are not required to report the number of animals killed in fires,  and media reports result in an incomplete picture,

“New York and Wisconsin recorded the most barn fires (31 each),  followed by Pennsylvania (28), Ohio (23) and Illinois (22),”  Fishman added.

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