03.26.08
Revere Saugus Riding Academy Fire March 23, 2004
This is a link to a video I uploaded this week on YouTube in memory of the horses that died in the fire four years ago this past Sunday. Someone was talking to me about it and said she couldn’t remember their names. I can’t forget. They were the horses stabled next to and in front of Q.
The pictures of the fire were sent to me just after the fire. I don’t know by whom. This is what I saw as I ran to the barn. Just as I arrived the roof was caving in. The pictures of the aftermath I took with film I had bought for a horse show the kids were supposed to have gone to a week later. I had gone back to say a final good bye and to see if I could retrieve my mom’s St. Francis medal which I had tacked to the outside of Q’s stall. Needless to say I couldn’t. Luckily I lost everything but the Q.
I can still remember that sunny Tuesday. Around 12:30 a co-worker came up to me asking, “Is your horse in Revere? There’s a bad fire there and they can’t get them out.” I remember running to my car. I was in Burlington. Q was in Revere. I started praying not to let him die then not to let him suffer.
I sped down 128N then onto RT. 1S. I could see thick black smoke more than 2 miles away. Having grown up with farming I knew there was basically no chance of surviving a barn fire. I felt hope as I saw a horse trailer in the distance rushing to the scene but it was only one. When I got there the barn was engulfed.
As I ran up the hill towards the fire and barn entrance a fireman grabbed me. I saw someone I knew - I screamed asking did Q get out?? - He didn’t know but yelled those that did were in the back field. He added only one of the big boys got out.
I ran an obstacle course of firemen and news reporters, through blackberry bushes, down a muddy path and got to the field but couldn’t see him. There were more reporters and someone tried to stop me. A woman asked who I was looking for I said a big dark horse. She pointed to where the field dipped and I ran.
There he was chomping on new grass. A woman whose name I never found out was holding him with pink package twine.
A red cross worker came up to me and handed me a bottle of water, some tissue and a blanket. I quickly put the blanket on Q, wet the tissue with water and started cleaning his nostrils, which had black goop and mud, and I wiped his eyes. He was covered in mud, which was still damp. He also drank water from my hand. It was sometime later I realize she had brought those things for me since I had lost my coat in the blackberry bushes and was covered with scratches and bawling like a baby. A man later came up and gave me a coat to wear.
Luckily a new horse was brought into the barn that day. It disrupted the turnout schedule and resulted in Q being turned out later than usual that day. He rolled in the thick mud in the paddocks. He was brought in covered with mud and no one removed it not even the mud in his nostrils. Thank God. It gave him protection. He did have some spots of singed hair and missing mane and a cut on his hock but nothing compared to what could have happened.
The news people had broken through and surrounded us. They were asking questions. Q chomped down on one of the microphones a woman held out and someone asked them to leave us alone. I was told were were on the nightly news. Someone taped it and gave it to me. I still haven’t watched it.
The fire had started 3 stalls from him and had already moved over his stall when Jose Garcia the barn hand ran through the barn opening stalls. Jose had come back from lunch to see the flames. He ran through the barn opening the stalls– no horse got out on his own except Q. He told me he said “Go Quintin Go” and Q went flying out of the barn. He was found waiting at the outside end of the riding ring. Normally horses don’t do that; they will refuse to leave their stalls.
The rest of the horses had to be haltered and grabbed; few lead lines were ever near the stalls. The horses then had to be brought out of the barn and handed off to be held or they would run back into the barn. If it hadn’t been for passersby on Route 1 and the guys from the body shop and welding company holding them more would have died. Many of these people had never been near a horse before.
Before long while still holding Q in the field I found out the horses stabled in front of Q, Amber and Esco, died in their stalls. Their bodies were in gentle repose so it was assumed they died of smoke inhalation quickly. Orlik the horse who had been stabled to Q’s right had actually been brought out and was shown in a TV interview at the fire being held by the barn manager. Somehow after that he broke free and ran back into the barn to perish in the aisle in front of his stall. Amadeus was in horrible condition he was in the stall to the left of Q. He had severe smoke inhalation and had to have a tracheotomy. He survived after spending many months at Tufts Medical and became known as the miracle horse.
The animal control officer came up to me as they were loading the horses to go to Lane’s End. He asked if Q was my horse. He said he found Q with a couple of horses at the outside end of the riding ring. All he said was come and Q came. He’d never heard of that. He took Q and the others to the field to be held away from the smoke. He had never trained to work with horses. I was proud and relieved. We had just been working on the Go and Come commands.
The news reporters were pretty much kept at bay by the Revere Police but a few would approach. It’s their job. One reporter– Jorge Quiroga of WCVB-TV Channel 5 in Boston– I have to say is an extraordinarily kind human being who showed us great compassion and respected our emotions and space.
There are milestones in your life and this was one of mine. I stopped looking to find a home for Q that day. He had already found one with me.
