“Attention Mount Forest firefighters, attention Arthur firefighters, please respond for a fully-involved barn fire,” called a dispatcher on the night of Jan. 14.
As Wellington North firefighters, along with three other fire stations, were being called to Woolhaven Arabians just west of Mount Forest, Doris and Rob Woolner were desperately trying to save 13 horses from their barn.
The Woolners’ barn sat just metres from the house they had recently moved into.
Doris heard a bang like a horse kicking, she recalled a month after the tragedy sitting at a large picture window in her kitchen that overlooks the now empty field.
“It did it again, so (Rob) stood up and opened that sliding door and looked over and saw smoke and he said, ‘the barn’s on fire’,” she told the Advertiser.
Without putting on a coat or boots, both she and her husband rushed to the barn. Rob ran to the lean-to side of the barn where the smoke was the thickest, while Doris ran into the barn, opening the doors and the stalls, she explained.
A truck driver resting nearby saw a red glow and ran to help. Rob had tried to free the four horses on the lean-to side of the barn, where there was also a tractor and diesel cans.
“He said he fell twice, and the guy running behind him said ‘you can’t go in there,’ but you got to do what you got to do,” said Doris, tearing up.
“By the time he got the door open there was quiet. So, it’s too late. The smoke, which was a good thing, got (the horses) first.”
On the other side of the barn, Doris was desperately trying to release the Woolners’ seven horses, along with others boarded there.
Three mares with three foals were rooted to their stalls but one horse did escape.
“They’re not leaving their stalls, only DJ, and I just hollered at him to get out and he did,” she explained.
When the firefighters arrived, the barn was not yet engulfed in flames. Wellington North Fire Chief Dave Guilbault ordered his firefighter not to go into the barn, but Doris wanted to.
“I’m thinking, ‘give me (a mask)’… because I would have gone back in,” Doris said.
Paramedics and firefighters brought the Woolners back into the house. The fire had started in the lean-to side of the barn, but the wind pushed it toward the other side of the barn.
“I was standing there,” Doris said pointing to the spot in front of the picture window, “Then I saw the whole thing on this side engulfed in flames. Well then, I just broke down again and just said ‘now they’re gone for sure.’ But to see that; that whole side of the barn now engulfed in flames, your horses are burning right?”
She added, “It’s not a good sight to see.”
Rob was admitted to the hospital that night for smoke inhalation, but he is doing well now, she explained.
It was not easy for Doris to speak about the horses she lost, like “gentle” Magic, “beloved” Jakeera and her foal Duke.
Doris and Rob lost 12 horses that night, seven of their own. Three foals less than a year old and horses that she had raised, as well as the bloodlines that she had worked so hard to create were lost that night.
Of the 12 horses, friend Derek Jones lost four (his DJ Hilfiger survived). Another horse was lost by a third party.
“It’s just so abrupt. You don’t have a chance to say goodbye … you just saw them last weekend it’s just hard to say they’re gone,” said Jones.
He said DJ is doing fine, and he thanks his friend and local veterinarian Brianne Henderson for keeping a close eye on the horse after the fire.
“The biggest problem with horses that have been in a fire is 36 hours later, she said, because if there’s an issue it will show up a day and a half later,” said Jones.
“She just did a great job of making sure he was going to be okay.”
Doris said she and Rob think constantly about the night of the fire – and what they could have done differently.
“You just beat yourself up thinking maybe we should have gone out at nine to check … (but) unless the horse kicked, we wouldn’t have opened the door, then we might not have gotten DJ out. I don’t know, you just keep beating yourself up,” she said.
She said she wishes she could have saved all the horses.
“We could have lost our lives, which I don’t know, when you’re saving these guys, if we could have got all of them out, maybe it would have been alright, if they were all saved and maybe I lost mine,” she said, looking down at the photos her horses.
Days after the fire, the insurance investigator discovered a rat had chewed a contractor’s extension cord used for heating the water buckets in the lean-to side of the barn.
“It’s not anything from the wiring, just from a stupid extension cord and a stupid rat,” said Doris.
She explained further that through her conversations with the investigators, she discovered the mild winter may be causing an increase in the rat population.
Doris said she now feels lost.
“Moving here, this was our perfect window because you could put the horses out, we see deer, we could watch the horses, that’s why I needed the barn to be built right away…
“My thing was to go out and do chores in the morning, and for 30 years, now you’re lost,” she explained.
Doris said she needs to keep herself busy, especially during the times she would be in the barn. She helps drive Mennonite builders working on rebuilding the structure.
Other things have helped her and her husband, such as the notes they have received in the mailbox.
“We had people leave little notes in our mailbox, that was just, I mean we’ve only been here a year… it’s just amazing,” said Doris.
One note included an offer to house the surviving horse in a converted garage, others wanted to donate time and lend support to the couple.
To Doris’ surprise, a friend of the family is donating a horse named Deedee back to the Woolners. Doris helped foal DeeDee, which is of the same bloodline as Jakeera, and sold her to their friend six years ago.
The friend, who wished not to be named, called Doris in early February to say she wanted to give Deedee back.
“That’s amazing. Rob and I were so blown away,” said Doris.
The Arabian Horsemen’s Distress Fund is helping the Woolners with $30,000 to cover what fire insurance doesn’t. The Arabian Horse Association of Eastern Canada has also set up a trust fund to help (TD Bank, on Main Street in Milton, #30442 004 6406038).
Locally, rider and friend Alice Draper is organizing a fundraiser clinic on April 9 at Cornertstone Stables in Erin to support Doris and Rob.
The clinic will include a sidesaddle demonstration and training by Lois Beecroft, equine massage therapy by Lorna Bell, confident horsemanship workshop by Anne Gage and gymnastics to improve horse movement workshop by Janet Henderson.
Tickets are $75 before April 1 and can be ordered by emailing adraper22@hotmail.com or calling 519-830-2432.
