Two dozen horses died in an early morning blaze at Folly Farm in Simsbury Thursday, one of the deadliest barn fires nationally in recent years and a staggering blow to the family-owned farm.
All 24 horses housed in the farm’s largest barn died of smoke inhalation, according to James Baldis, chief of Simsbury Volunteer Fire Department. On Facebook, the farm’s manager, Alison Patricelli, said the 19 horses housed in other barns on the property were unharmed.
The fire’s grim toll is among the worst in recent years, exceeded only by a 2016 Kentucky barn fire — apparently sparked by lightning — that killed 27 horses, and a 2014 fire in suburban Chicago that left 32 horses dead.