From : The Tuesday, 12/7/99 Syracuse Post-Standard
Fire kills
horses
Officials are seeking the casue of a blaze that
destroyed a barn in South Onondaga.
By Daniel Gonzalez
Nineteen horses are believed to have died in a huge fire
that leveled a barn at Quarry Ridge Stables in South
Onondaga late Monday.
A hundred firefighters from seven fire departments
battled the blaze for hours before finally bringing the
fire under control about 3 this morning, said James
Carpenter, assistant fire chief of the South Onondaga
Fire Department. Firefighters encountered flames up to
40 feet, and the heat from the blaze was so hot it
melted the siding on two houses across the road from the
barn, Carpenter said.
Firefighters doused the residential buildings with water
to prevent them from catching fire, he said.
"When we got here, all we saw were flames. We were
worried about these structures here," he said, pointing
toward the houses. "To be honest, the rest was lost."
The barn continued to smolder this morning, sending
thick clouds of smoke into the misty air as fire
investigators assisted by a large mechanical hoe sifted
through the rubble trying to determine the cause of the
blaze, which was reported at 11: 15 p.m.
"The barn is tragic, but the horses, that's what's
sentimental to people," said Phil Bowen, who owns the
sprawling farm at 5016 South Onondaga Road.
Bowen said he leased the barn - a three-story wood frame
structure built around the turn of the century - to a
woman named Lorie Lorini, who used the barn for her
business buying and selling Pleasure horses.
When the fire started, he said as many as 19 horses were
inside the barn, including 17 owned by Lorini. The two
others belonged to other owners who stabled their horses
at the barn, Bowen said.
The breeds of the horses that perished included
appaloosas and palominos. Bowen said Five more horses
are usually stabled in the barn and survived because
they were outside in a nearby pasture when the fire
ignited, Bowen said.
"It could have been a lot worse," he said.
The fire was discovered by Bowen's daughter, Lisa, 23,
as she was driving home from work at a hotel in
Syracuse.
Bowen said his daughter attempted to free the animals,
but the fire pushed her back. "When she opened the door,
she was overwhelmed with smoke so she couldn't get
inside," Bowen said.
From The Wednesday, 12/8/99, Syracuse Post-Standard
BR> Fire Kills
19 Horses; Teen
Charged
Owner: 'They were my babies'
By John S. Merculief II and Daniel Gonzalez
Lori Lorini says she lost her 19 "children" in a barn
fire late Monday.
A suspicious fire spread quickly through the three-level
barn at 5016 South Onondaga Road. The fire destroyed the
barn and killed the 19 horses Lorini was keeping there.
"They were my babies," Lorini, 39, said. "This was my
whole life since I was 9 years old. I lost my only
source of making money. My whole life is over."
Tuesday evening, the Onondaga County Sheriff's
Department charged a laborer at the stables with setting
the fire. Mark A. Fugal, 17, of 5047 Route 80 was
charged with one count of third-degree arson and two
counts of fourth-degree arson, both felonies.
Phil Bowen, 47, owns the barn, which is part of his
Quarry Ridge Stables.
Tuesday evening, the charred remnants of the barn, a
smaller barn nearby and a pile of hay were still
smoldering, sending white smoke into the sky above the
valley where the farm sits.
Bowen said he leases the barn to Lorini. The barn was
home to her business, which bought and sold pleasure
horses.
The barn contained 1,500 bales of hay.
"I've been to Pulaski, to Mexico, to Hamilton - anywhere
I could get it (hay)," Lorini said. "I wanted to get
ahead for winter."
Lorini decided to put her horses in the barn because of
the weather. The forecast for Monday night called for
cold temperatures and rain, she said.
"I feel like I killed them because I brought them in the
barn," said Lorini, who kept several cats with feline
leukemia in the barn. "I never put my horses in, because
I worry about fires."
Lorini owned most of the horses, and she boarded the
rest. Three of the ones she had had the longest were
Blitz, 26, a Pinto; Travis, 15, an Arabian, and Spot,
10, an Appaloosa.
The loss was especially hard because it comes so close
to the anniversary of a Dec. 28, 1989 fire, said Stanley
Bukowski, a friend of 14 years and owner of some of the
horses that died. In that fire, Lorini and Bukowski lost
all their possessions when the house they were renting
together burned completely.
In neither fire did Bukowski or Lorini have insurance.
Bukowski said Tuesday it was difficult for him to put a
dollar figure on the losses. He figured the total damage
to be about $500,000.
The fire destroyed Bowen's barn, Lorini's equipment,
pickup truck and a horse trailer. The fire's heat warped
siding on houses across the street.
Joe Stilwell was asleep in one of those houses, at Route
80 and Bowen Road, when he awoke to the sound of the
horses.
"I heard horses, but it wasn't neighing," Stilwell said.
"They were screaming. Then they stopped."
The Quarry Stables' barn was mostly gone in about 10
minutes, he said.
"It was like a blow-torch," Stilwell said. "It came out
at a 90-degree angle. I could see the rain wasn't coming
down at an angle. The way I figure it, a fire needs so
much oxygen, it just made its own draft."
By the time Onondaga Nation firefighters - the first
there - arrived, the barn was engulfed, Stilwell said.
Minutes later, firefighters were telling him to get out
of the house, which is about 200 feet from the barn. He
didn't know why until he put his hand on the window and
felt the heat.
Quarry Ridge Stables is known for its pony and horse
rides, as well as its riding clubs. Those horses are
stabled at another barn farther north on the property
and were not injured in the fire, Bowen said.
Bowen's stables are about a mile south of the W.F.
Saunders sand and gravel company on Route 80, which is
Valley Drive as it comes out of Syracuse.
A hundred firefighters from seven fire departments
worked about four hours before bringing the fire under
control about 3 a.m. Tuesday.
A Nedrow firefighter had a minor injury when her leg got
caught between a temporary pool and a fire truck that
moved unexpectedly, said Dennis Abbott, South Onondaga
fire chief.
Workers spent much of Tuesday using a bulldozer to dig a
pit next to the barn's charred remnants for a mass grave
for the horses, which included Appaloosas, Palominos,
quarterhorses and thoroughbreds.
Lorini had bought some of the horses at auction, she
said, rescuing them from dealers interested in
processing their carcasses.
"What did I rescue them for?" Lorini said. "I don't even
know if I want another horse. I don't know if I want to
love something else again and have it die like this."
From The Wednesday, December 8, 1999 Syracuse Post-Standard :
Employee arrested
A teen-age employee of Quarry Ridge Stables was arrested
Tuesday night for setting fire to the stables, Onondaga
County sheriff's deputies said.
Mark A. Furgal, 17, of 5047 Route 80, Nedrow, was
charged with one count of third-degree arson and two
counts of fourth-degree arson, all felonies.
Investigators said Furgal used gasoline to start a fire
in an incinerator near the barn, then spread gasoline on
the barn structure. Deputies said Furgal did not give a
reason.
Jemeli Tanui
Wednesday, December 8, 1999
From The Wednesday, 12/8/99 Syracuse Post-Standard :
The teen whom authorities say ignited the barn fire that
killed 19 trapped horses on a South Onondaga Road farm
was angry with the woman who owned the horses and her
boyfriend, according to a statement he gave officials.
"I didn't mean for the horses to get hurt. They usually
aren't even in the barn," Mark A. Furgal, 17, said in
six pages of statements on file at the Onondaga Town
Court.
Sheriff's deputies charged Furgal with one count of
third-degree arson and two counts of fourth-degree
arson. It took 100 firefighters from seven suburban fire
departments four hours to control the fire, which was
discovered late Monday.
Furgal was arraigned Tuesday in Onondaga Town Court,
where bail was set at $10,000. He was being held
Wednesday at the county Justice Center jail.
Seventeen of the 19 horses that died in the fire
belonged to Lori A. Lorini, 39, who ran a business as a
horse trader. Lorini rented the barn for $400 a month
from Quarry Road Stables, a sprawling horse farm off
Route 80 in Onondaga. Phil Bowen owns the farm.
Furgal, who lived in a bunkhouse on the property at 5047
South Onondaga Road, worked for Bowen as a farmhand. In
his statement, he told sheriff's deputies he did "all
sorts of stuff" on the farm, "including caring for the
horses, fixing the fences, giving trail rides and lots
more."
Furgal said Lorini's boyfriend, Stanley "Stash"
Bukowski, accused him Saturday of breaking into Lorini's
house the week before. Bukowski also accused him of
stealing money from Lorini and breaking into the barn.
Furgal said he was scared because Bukowski threatened to
beat him up.
"I was just mad at Stash and Lori, and I wanted to scare
them by starting this fire," Furgal said in his
statement.
In a telephone interview, Bukowski admitted he
confronted Furgal earlier and threatened to beat Furgal
up. He said the confrontation took place Sunday.
Lorini could not be reached for comment.
Lorini's sister, Mary Harrison, 33, however, described
Furgal as a troubled youth whom Lorini had befriended
three years ago when he began working on the farm.
She said her sister frequently took Furgal with her on
horse-buying trips and paid him to help her around the
stables.
"He was someone we really trusted and liked, and we are
really shocked that he would do something like this,"
Harrison said.
Harrison said the relationship between her sister and
Furgal had soured in recent months.
At first, Furgal told deputies the fire was an accident.
In his first statement, Furgal described going to feed
the horses and noticing a full garbage incinerator next
to the barn. Using a lighter and a can of gasoline,
Furgal ignited the garbage. Furgal said he kept
splashing gas in the incinerator and watching the fire
flare up.
Suddenly, the ground caught fire when some of the gas
spilled. Furgal said he was afraid the gas can was going
to explode so he dropped it. When he did, more gas
spilled and the fire spread, igniting the back of the
barn.
Furgal said he kept throwing mud, but the fire got
bigger and bigger.
"I am so sorry for what happened. I never meant for the
barn to burn or for Lori's horses to get hurt," Furgal
said.
But in a follow-up statement, given to deputies an hour
and a half later, Furgal painted a different picture,
telling them he wasn't being "completely truthful about
what happened."
In his later statement, he admitted intentionally
starting the fire by pouring gasoline on the barn and
then sprinkling a trail of gas from the barn to the
garbage incinerator.
From Tuesday, 12/7/99 Sybercuse.Com Local News Page
18 Horses Die
in Nedrow
Fire
Investigators are looking into what
caused a stable fire in southern
Onondaga County. At least 18 riding
horses died in the fire.
Witnesses say the sky was bright
orange for miles as the barn at Bowen
Farms in Nedrow burned. The fire
started just before 11:30 pm Monday
night.
Fire officials say when they arrived,
they knew the burning barn was a lost
cause, so they called a second, and
then a third alarm. No word yet on how
the fire started.
Article From Wed, 12/8/99 Sybercuse.Com Local News Page :
Nedrow Fire Ruled Arson
Onondaga County Sheriff's Deputies
charge a Nedrow teen with setting that
barn fire on South Onondaga road
Monday night. Detectives charged
17-year-old Mark Furgal with three
counts of arson.
Quarry Ridge Stables was already fully
engulfed when crews arrived. The 12
horses housed in the barn perished in
the fire. Police say Furgal worked at
the stables and allegedly used gas to
ignite the fire. He's been arraigned in
Town of Onondaga court where bail
was set at 10-thousand dollars.
D'eredita say Furgal was cooperative
with detectives, a motive is not yet
known.
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