Orange County New York Farm Recovering After Devastating Fire

On the night of February 16th, an equestrian center in Florida New York experienced every horse person's worst nightmare, a barn fire.

Florida New York Equestrian Center Losses Barn in Devasting Fire

On Sunday, Feb 16th the call went out that no one ever wants to hear. The Stables at MiraBella had a barn on fire. A note was posted Tuesday on social media by Don, Terry, and Vanessa describing how things unfolded starting with the call alerting them to the fire.

The Stables at MiraBella located on Jessup Road in Florida, New York are an award-winning equestrian center. Their riders compete at various horse shows in the northeast and are well known for their accomplishments Their IEA Team just competed in the IEA Regionals at Gardnertown Farms in Newburgh last month and was in the ribbons.

Most of the Hudson Valley horse world was finding out about this tragedy as the fire calls went out. Multiple Facebook groups dedicated to both Orange County Emergencies and the horse community were spreading the word almost as fast as the fire was occurring at MiraBella.

Watching the Horsepeople rally was amazing. everyone asking about the horses, hoping for good news, offering to help, offering trailers for transport even stalls in their barns if they were needed. Fortunately, nine horses and the barn cat plus the people who called the barn apartment home all made it out okay.

The Number One Rule For Any Horse Barn

I am going to guess that the folks at MiraBella practice rule number one at a barn. All stalls have a lead rope and a halter hanging on them for just this type of reason. In an emergency, you won't have time to get to the tack room.

The Stable at MiraBella Comment of the Night of the Fire

There’s no amount of training or preparation that can help you, you just act and rely on instinct. My parents and I, my staff and 2 good samaritans jumped into action. Everyone acted swiftly, bravely, selflessly and we successfully evacuated everyone from the building! The horses were the true hero’s, putting their trust into me/us to lead them to safety. The horses were panicked, not wanting to leave their stalls, visibility was low, we had minutes to spare & somehow saved EVERYONE!!!  (The Stable at MiraBella / Terry via Facebook)

According to the Warwick Valley Dispatch, a local paper for the area two local residents, D.J. Rinaldi, and Dyaln Zanne noticed the fire first when driving by and called the fire in then rushed to the barn to start letting out the horses.

Multiple Fire Departments Fight Barn Fire in Florida New York

Numerous fire departments responded. I have not been able to find a complete list but these are a few who were listed on an Orange County Emergency Facebook group: Florida FD, Vernon NJ, Goshen FD, Pine Island FD, Warwick FD, Chester FD, Greenwood Lake FD, Warwick EMS Rehab, New Hampton FD, and Upper Greenwood Lake NJ.

One of the longtime boarders ar MiraBella has set up a GoFundMe to help Mirabella. As you will see from the pictures below the barn and everything it it is a total loss. Not only did they lose the contents of the barn but the three staff who live there lost everything as well.