A fire killed two horses as it blazed through pop-up stables in Southwest Philly on Thursday, according to the Pennsylvania SPCA and ACCT Philly. Twelve other horses were rescued, along with a handful of other farm animals.
The fire at the stables, located at 5800 Eastwick Ave. off of Lindbergh Boulevard, was reported to the Philadelphia Fire Department at 7:37 a.m. By the time firefighters arrived, the one-story structures were fully engulfed in flames, according to fire department spokesperson Rachel Cunningham. Firefighters extinguished the fire by 8:02 a.m., she said.
It is unclear what caused the fire. The PSPCA and ACCT Philly transported three horses to the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center for critical treatment, and three other horses to the PSPCA headquarters in Philadelphia. The other six horses are being temporarily housed with the Montgomery County SPCA.
ACCT also took a pig and goat into their care, according to the PSPCA.
The PSPCA’s Animal Law Enforcement team is investigating the incident and the site with the Philadelphia Fire and Police Departments. That will include collecting forensic evidence of the rescued horses’ conditions and injuries to determine potential cruelty or neglect charges, the PSPCA said in a statement.
The 100,000-square-foot parcel of land is owned by the city’s Redevelopment Authority, according to public property records.
ACCT said it became aware of the property last month after an employee noticed it, and reached out to the Redevelopment Authority and the Department of Licenses and Inspections for help, according to ACCT executive director Sarah Barnett.
ACCT issued citations to the stables on Sunday, but these citations call for fines that are difficult to enforce and the organization was hoping for stronger enforcement mechanisms from L&I, Barnett said.
An L&I inspector visited the property Thursday and issued two violations, one each for use permitting and unsafe structures, according to L&I spokesperson Shameka Moore. It is the responsibility of the property owner to remove these structures, Moore said.
The Redevelopment Authority “was aware of the horses on the property” and “was working with the city and other organizations to have the animals safely removed,” said spokesperson Jamila Davis.
Community members said they had expressed concerns about animal welfare at the site. Emily T., who frequents the area with a West Philly cat rescue group and did not wish to give her full name because she works for the city, said that she and others had filed complaints with ACCT and the PSPCA, as well as alerting police about the conditions at the stable.
“Nobody cares until something bad happens. This didn’t have to happen,” Emily said.
But ACCT and PSPCA said that they had not received complaints about the property.
Most of the stables at the site, which has little open area for horses to roam or graze, are made with thin plywood walls and roofs that are covered with tarp in some spots. The ground is rocky and muddy, and filled with litter. Three of the rescued horses were “very underweight,” according to Barnett.
When he began housing his animals at the site a year ago, Gordon Parks said another man told him he owned the land, and he let Parks build two stables for his own seven horses and three goats. Several other people kept their horses in pop-up stables on the land, but Parks said they cared for their animals separately.
Parks uses his animals for a nonprofit, Scorpion Horse Ranch, which teaches youths about animal care. Parks said that he learned later that the land was owned by the city and he was unaware of violations issued to the property. Parks said he was working toward acquiring the land from the city before the fire occurred.
He said he was in Georgia at the time of the blaze, and believes it was set by other horse owners. According to Parks, they were upset that he wouldn’t take care of their horses without compensation or involve them in his nonprofit.
He acknowledged that some of the horses at the stables weren’t being well cared for, but said he didn’t own them, and that he couldn’t afford to take care of them.
The fire burned only through his two stables, and the two horses that died were his.
“There’s no electricity there, so how did the fire start?” he said.
On Thursday afternoon, a group of men who declined to share their identities worked to clean up parts of the site, not touching the charred body of one of the horses inside the remains of a small blackened structure. Earlier, they had struggled to capture a pig that kept running away, according to a fire marshal investigating the scene. It eventually nestled into a hideout, off to the side of the burned area.
