Doyle Barn Fire Update- In Her Own Words

By now, many of our readers have heard about the horrific barn fire that struck IPHA member, Kristy Doyle’s, facility over the weekend. The devastating blaze resulted in the loss of 12 horses and only one surviving animal.

She has directed us to the following detailed account of her ordeal.

Kristy Doyle:

“The past 24 hours have been a nightmare that has always been my greatest fear and something I prayed would never happen. BARN FIRE. At 10:15 pm on Saturday February 5th, I was alerted the barn was on fire. I raced out to see flames in the center of the barn (tack room area), so I sprinted to the far west end of the stall area and muscled the big sliding door open. The smoke was suffocating, and I could hear horses choking and gasping for air. I crawled on my belly down the aisle to try to get doors open, but I couldn’t make it more than 10 feet before I became disoriented and chocked on smoke, which the strong south wind was then funneling down the 100 ft long aisle.”

“I could hear Derek Young (former fire chief that we did training with) in my head saying, ‘I never want to have to rescue you as well.’ I had also just read an article less than 30 minutes prior about a barn fire in Nebraska where a person was also killed, so I listened to my head, and not my heart, and got back out.”

“Chris Moody and I each tried one more time, but it was even worse, and then the flames hit that end of the barn. I knew all the horses were gone by that point, less than three minutes! There was nothing we could do but scream, cry, and watch the nightmare unfold.”

“Derek was pulling in at that point, and the Ellsworth Fire Department was not far behind. The fire trucks kept coming! At least eight departments responded and, at one time, I counted 17 emergency vehicles in the drive and parked on the road. There were 50+ firefighters. They had about as difficult a task as possible. That strong south wind meant that they were fighting with the smoke billowing in their face, and the subzero temperature was causing issues with water freezing up in the trucks and hoses. They worked for over six hours getting the fire put out.”

“At 3:45 am, they found the four geldings that were in the arena, huddled together in the northeast corner of the arena. They had no idea they were there as three of the horses were black, and part of the arena roof had collapsed. After Chris and I had been treated in the ambulance for smoke inhalation, I had gone to mom’s (about 1am) to get out of my smoky clothes and shower to get the smoke and soot out of my hair as the constant smell of smoke on and around me was causing more problems with my breathing. I never knew water could run off so black even from skin that was under three layers of clothing!”

“When I got the call that they found the boys and were trying to make a way out for them, I threw some of mom’s old barn clothes on (mine were in the washing machine!) and raced back out there. Deidre Witte turned around and came back. Mark Stevens came with his truck, and we hooked up the two bumper pull trailers, loaded the four boys, and moved them to Lorna Wyrick’s for fresh air and further evaluation. Shadow, Crow, and Mojo had some burns on them and very labored breathing from the smoke inhalation. Milo was darn near normal! He had no burns, only singed hair, and his breathing was not overly labored. He immediately went to eating hay and drank water.”

“Through numerous phone calls with my wonderful vet, Emily Tucker Davis, we decided that Milo should go to the University of Illinois for further evaluation and treatment, and Shadow would go for evaluation and, most likely euthanasia, as he was the worst off, and his owner Rachel Lowrance is a University of Illinois student, so she could come tell him goodbye. Dr Tucker then went and evaluated Crow and Mojo, and the difficult decision to euthanize both of them was made. Milo has a good prognosis and got a great report from the vets at 7:30 pm yesterday!”

“I have been absolutely bombarded by texts, calls, and Facebook messages today. The amount of love and support we’re receiving is overwhelming, and we need every bit of it to get through this! Mom, Connie Parker, and I lost six of our horses in the fire- Dixie, Jasmine, Roscoe, Jack, Lexi, and Lilly- constituting 20 years of training and my entire breeding program. Thankfully, I had sent Ozzie to Julie Kristine Tenhouse two weeks ago, as I didn’t have enough extra time to ride him, so I still have one left. Although it’s pretty hard to rebuild off a 4-year-old gelding…”

“Dawn M Conlin lost her mare Mia. Lauren Nicole lost her dream filly, Phoebe. Becky Caruso lost her longtime best friend Beauty. Rachel lost her youth show gelding, Shadow. Lizabeth Smock Morrow and husband, Sean lost Crow and Mojo. The hardest part is none of these horses deserved to die in this manner. Dawn, Lauren, Becky, and I have nothing to memorialize our babies by (halter, tail hair, or shoes). But we have pictures, videos, and lots of memories. I will write more about the horses individually later on.”

“So many people have offered help. At this point, we do not know what the coming days will bring. We’re waiting for insurance adjuster and fire marshal review first. I will reach out if we need assistance in the next few days and weeks. In the meantime, just say prayers for each of us and prayers for Milo to come through this for Grace Stevens! Thank you for the support and love. Thank you to the fire crews, my wonderful vet, Deidre, for coming in the middle of the night as soon as she heard, and my dad, Mike Doyle, for being there every step of the way thus far. Now I’m going to try to get some rest so I face the rest of this battle.”

We send our thoughts and prayers to Kristy, her family, and those who lost their beloved horses in this horrible event.

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