Dead Horsemeat

Tuesday 25 July 1989

Shortly before midnight, a slender crescent moon, clouds, strong winds. The stables are dark, nearly a hundred stalls around a huge square yard, on the edge of the forest. The trees groan in chorus, the buildings creak, the horses are a little restless. A hoof strikes the floor from time to time. On one side of the quadrangle are the grooms’ sleeping quarters, just above the horses’ stalls. Two windows are still lit.

In a shadowy corner opposite, a little explosion, barely louder than a banger, and a shower of sparks, then a blazing yellow flame, a pool of fire immediately in front of one of the stalls creeps along the ground and climbs around the door with a crackle. The horses whinny and grow restive. Lights come on in the grooms’ quarters. A panic-stricken neighing, pounding of hooves, the straw in the stall is now ablaze. The men are at the windows, the wind blows in sharp gusts.

By the time they descend, the fire has reached to the roof and is spreading from stall to stall with a roar. In the yard, half-naked men race to the doors to release the horses from their stalls. Wild with panic, the horses stampede towards the forest. A groom is knocked down and trampled. A horse, its mane on fire, whinnying in terror, hurls itself against a wall and sinks to the ground, its skull shattered. One whole section of the roof collapses amid a cascade of orange sparks. Along with the smell of burning, the wind carries the horrendous smell of scorched flesh and hide.

Soaking wet, blackened, desperate, the men, clutching every available hosepipe, sprinkle everything that is still standing to delay the fire’s progress. And the wind is still up.

A second row of stalls catches fire before the fire engine’s siren can be heard. The firefighters have to remove two dead horses blocking the path before they can reach the stable yard and turn their hose on the fire. After battling for an hour, they manage to put out the flames. Half of the stables are burnt out, reduced to heaps of charred timber and ashes, exuding a blackish fluid and a few wisps of smoke. A boy, his bare chest smeared black, lies sobbing beside the charred body of a horse, cradling its head in his arms.