MARION COUNTY, Fla. — The Florida Bureau of Fire, Arson, and Explosives is investigating after a barn fire killed 21 horses Tuesday morning.
Marion County Fire Chief James Banta says they got the call just before 4 a.m. of a barn on fire in the 6000 block of NW 118th Street in Reddick.
“The whole barn is on fire. I don’t know how it can be. I just checked it an hour ago, and it was fine,” said a security guard to 911 dispatch Tuesday morning.
Crews arrived within 15 minutes and found a 10,000-foot barn fully engulfed in flames. The roof had already completely collapsed by the time crews arrived.
All 21 horses inside the structure died, the chief says.
“It’s troubling for our community, and we’re very sad. And our hearts and prayers go out to the owners of the horses, because this community loves our horses, and it’s horse country,” Banta said.
Skywitness and Drone 9 flew over the property, where only the foundation and some walls of the barn remain.
The property is owned by the Roberts Family, a well-known name in Marion County. The family created the World Equestrian Center in Ocala and are the owners of the freight shipping empire R&L Carriers.
The family has owned World Champion Show horses but no word on if those horses were killed in the fire.
Chief Banta says this is a huge loss for not only the family but the community,y as Marion County is the heart of horse country.
Tuesday, Marion County Fire Marshall and the state’s Bureau of Fire, Arson and Explosives searched the scene and worked to determine what caused the fire.
“We’ll look at everything, so we’ll dig into the entire scene and try to recreate what happened and try and get to the bottom of it to hopefully prevent anything like this from happening again,” said Chief Banta.
The state was called in because of the monetary loss of the fire between the building and the nearly two dozen horses.
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