When tragedy strikes, sometimes all you can do is run to the rescue. A blazing fire engulfed a barn in Colorado, where 14 horses were being kept. Eddie Soto Sanchez was asleep when he got a phone call telling him that the barn on the Hidden Pines Farm was burning, he jumped out of bed. With zero hesitation, Sanchez ran from his home on the property to the barn.
“I ran to the barn, opened the doors, ran in and it’s dark,” the farm’s property manager explained. As soon as the doors opened, he said, he was greeted by “a hot cloud of smoke just rushed out” of the barn. Sanchez, who was hospitalized for minor burns and smoke inhalation, said he had no choice but to try and save the horses. “I could hear the fire just kind of growing bigger inside the barn,” he said.
The horses were “screaming” and “kicking”, Sanchez said.
Sanchez was able to save four horses before the Franktown Fire Department dragged him away from the burning barn. But Sanchez tried desperately to get back in and save Dave, one of their older horses. Breaking away from the firefighters, he rushed back into the barn, but he said it was too late.
An aerial view of the burning barn. 9News
However, the horse did not come out. “I called his name, and he just wouldn’t answer it,” Sanchez said, crying. “At that point (fire rescuers) told me there’s nothing you can do.” Two of the horses rescued from the barn are still at an animal hospital, while two others are at a horse park.
Losing 10 horses still eats at Sanchez. “I keep thinking what I could have done differently to make sure that I saved more horses than I did,” he said. So far, a GoFundMe raised to help support Sanchez has raised more than $20,000. “Let’s continue to support our local hero so him and his family can feel secure during this holiday season,” the fund’s organizer wrote.
Eddie Sanchez, left, was treated for minor burns and smoke inhalation. At right, he talks about his experience trying to save the 14 horses that were inside a barn that was on fire. 9News
An investigation into the fire is ongoing, fire officials said. For Sanchez, it will take time to move past what happened. “My emotions just get all over the place,” he said.
This is what’s going to be difficult for me, you know, sitting there and remembering all of this.”
But he does know one thing, the horses knew he cared. “I was really close to every single one of them,” Sanchez said. “I loved them all, you know, in a unique way. And pretty sure they loved me.” Watch below, to hear Sanchez talk about what happened.
