”Fire” is the most repulsive four-letter word in the sport of horse racing.
In January, a fire in the stable area at Belmont Park killed 45 horses and a training center fire in Sellersburg, Ind., killed 51 thoroughbreds.
Could it happen at Hawthorne, where the harness horses currently are racing, or at Sportsman`s Park, where thoroughbreds are training for the start of the season on Feb. 24?
Bob Carey, Hawthorne`s assistant general manager, and Phil Langley, assistant to the president at Sportsman`s thoroughbred meeting, can`t see how it could.
”We started taking precautions in 1967, when we started putting up those things,” said Langley, pointing to the concrete barns that house the horses at Sportsman`s. ”We finished in 1976, and they`re fireproof as they can be.
”It`s not to say something can`t happen in one of the stalls. But the concrete goes right up to the ceiling, and I can`t imagine how it could jump. ”Horsemen will say the horses like the wood barns much better, and they`re more comfortable and all that. That`s not the important thing. These barns are four times as expensive as wood. In terms of safety, they`re infinitely better.”
The barn at Belmont was made of wood and was 70 years old. An investigation revealed that the sprinkler system was disconnected two days earlier after pipes burst because of a freeze-thaw situation.
The Indiana fire took place in an aluminum barn.
”In the last seven or eight years, we have spent $8 million replacing barns with masonry structures,” said Carey. ”By May, we will be completely done. Of all the tracks I`ve seen across the country, I think our barns and those at Sportsman`s are the ultimate in safety.
”We do have a couple of barns that have block walls but wooden roofs. In these barns, we have installed the most modern sprinklers, and they are checked constantly.”
Hawthorne`s grandstand was completely destroyed and only the structural steel remained in the clubhouse area following a fire in November, 1978. But the blaze didn`t spread to the backstretch.
Although Arlington Park has mostly wooden barns, the backstretch also was spared when the clubhouse and grandstand burned down July 31. No horses are currently stabled at the track.
