By James B. Bartle
Sunday evening proved to be an eventful time for members of the Bourbon Fire Department as they were called to 2822 Gerth Rd., located off Highway J, to rescue a horse stuck in a stairwell on the second floor of a barn.
“We arrived on the scene of a multi-story barn in which a horse, named Harmony, had climbed several stairs to get to a second floor window and became stuck and wouldn’t come back down the narrow stairwell,” said Jared Boast, Bourbon Fire assistant chief on the scene. “We made several attempts to lead the horse back down the stairs with grain and treats, but Harmony was not coming down.”
The horse was among several owned by Diana Barron.
According to Boast, another owner arrived at the barn and was able to contact the Eureka Fire Protection District’s Large Animal Rescue Unit which sent seven firefighters that teamed up with the nine Bourbon firefighters to get the horse back down.
“This just wasn’t something you would see every day, and something I’ve never encountered in the fire service,” said Boast. “Eureka arrived on the scene and we contacted Dr. John McDonald from the Sullivan Veterinary Hospital and Tim Reinhold from TRE who came out to assist right away. Mr. Reinhold was able to bring his company crane out to assist.”
According to Boast, rescue personnel were able to get harnesses around the horse and Dr. McDonald used a tranquilizer on the horse. Once the horse was knocked out, firefighters were able to move it so that it could be lowered back to the ground by the crane.
“Once we got everyone in place that we needed at the farm, it took us about 20 minutes to get the horse back to safety,” said Boast. “We cleared the incident at about 9:30 p.m. We couldn’t have done this without the great teamwork of both fire departments and the assistance we received from Dr. McDonald and Tim Reinhold. We appreciate the assistance we received from everyone.”