Neighbors Pitching In After Sunday Fire Takes 2 Horses, Barn

POCOPSON TOWNSHIP, PA — A barn fire that destroyed a historic structure along Wawaset Road in Chester County Sunday left the owner burned, four apartment residents unharmed but displaced, two horses dead, and seven horses out in the elements.

The historic stone barn that had apartment units in it burned up in one of several brush fires across Chester County Sunday as high winds and low humidity stoked fires. The barn fire on Wawaset Road was among multiple blazes that fire and emergency crews rushed to throughout the afternoon.

Neighbors organized and began pitching in quickly to help rebuild fences and set up a shed to shelter the seven horses who survived the fire but are left out in the cold this week. Their owner, "Don" was at home again on Tuesday after being treated for burns he got trying to get his horses to safety, according to a neighbor, Nicole Henwood, who is also a physician and is working to get the horses sheltered.

The Facebook fundraiser Henwood set up is bringing in cash to help shelter the seven surviving horses. Funds will build a shed and repair fencing that was damaged in Sunday's emergency.

"Our dear neighbor Don lost his historic barn and two horses in a tragic fire yesterday. He was burned himself while trying to get (the horses) out. Seven of the nine are safe."

Henwood said the University of Pennsylvania New Bolton Center veterinary school checked the surviving horses.

"They have no supplies, food, or sheds. Their fences have been destroyed from all the traffic in and out and some areas from the fire itself. We need to raise enough to give these guys a shed and a secure fence while their home is rebuilt," the fundraiser post stated.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the fundraiser had brought in $19,255 of its $50,000 goal from 330 donors. By Wednesday, $23,110 had come in.

Henwood's property backs up to Don's. She said her 9-year-old son was the first to alert her household on Sunday. "We could see the whole barn up in flames from our window," she said.

The historic structure also included apartments, whose residents got out unharmed. Henwood said the tenants were college students who have been able to shelter with their parents.

The surviving horses remain unsheltered. Henwood said they are thoroughbreds, born and raised on the farm. This, she explained, is why they can't just be relocated.

"He could move them but most of them were born there and have never been on a trailer so it would be next to impossible to move them; they would be even more traumatized being moved and being through the fire," Henwood explained.

"The horses used to sleep inside in their stalls and since they have no stalls they are just out in the fields without shelter and the fencing is in bad condition. So, we need to get enough together to get run-in sheds for the horses so they have shelter from the elements," she said.

Malvern Fire Company and Kennett Fire Company No. 1 were among the responders to the barn fire. Malvern reported sending a tanker out at 11:54 a.m. Sunday to assist the Longwood Fire Company crew at the barn fire. As tank trucks arrived, a team set up an extra dump tank for the water supply to douse the fire.

Kennett Fire Company No. 1 reported units from five counties worked covering two major fires and multiple brush fires within 5 miles of each other along Wawaset Road in Pocopson Township just before noon. Crews operated for several hours and Malvern Fire Company Rescue 49 pumped 180,000 gallons of water to the scene in Pocopson, the company reported.

Read the story about Sunday's brush fires in Chesco here.

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