EAF Grant Recipient Shares Valuable Insight after Navigating a Barn Fire and Its Aftermath

The Stables at MiraBella, February 2025

Vanessa Karlewicz, owner and head trainer of the Stables at MiraBella in Florida, NY, faced every horse owner's worst nightmare earlier this year: a barn fire. While Vanessa and her team safely evacuated all animals and humans, the structure—home to eight horses, along with her grooms' quarters and tool/equipment shed—was a total loss.

The road to rebuilding has been arduous, but thanks to support from EAF, her Western Hudson Valley PHA, and her community, Vanessa hasn't traveled it alone. Today, she shares insight that could be helpful, if not lifesaving, for other equestrians.

Vanessa's Top Tips

Keep a halter attached to a lead rope at each stall door, and keep additional halters and lead ropes near every barn entrance and exit. They won't do you any good tucked away in a tack trunk when the barn aisle is full of smoke and seconds matter. (Think safety over aesthetics on this one.)

Assess your stall door latches. The good Samaritans who helped us evacuate weren't horse people, and they had trouble opening the latches on our stall doors. If possible, choose stall hardware that make sense to the average eye.

Put reflective tape near your stall door latches and other essential equipment. During the fire, we could barely see. If you can unlatch your stall doors by feel, this will save vital seconds.

Left: Vanessa shows an example of stall latches that were difficult for non-horse people to maneuver quickly. Right: In Vanessa's upper barn, reflective tape now lines each stall door, with an extra strip above the door latch.

Work on leading your horse with a neck rope. It's a good simple skill horse owners can practice. When a horse panicked during our evacuation, I dropped his halter and couldn't see to find it. I led him out with a rope around his neck.

Think now about where you'd put your horses during a barn fire and communicate the plan with your barn staff. When seconds counted, we didn't waste time trying to separate our evacuated horses in the paddocks. Normally we'd worry about kicks and bites, but our horses were too scared and distracted to bother each other.

Put signage at your property entrance that identifies each building and lists its footage from the road. Our fire department helped us with this a few years ago. On the night of the fire, it enabled us to give 911 an exact address, and it enabled the firefighters to render aid as effectively as possible.

In case of an emergency, these signs at the head of Vanessa's driveway help emergency personnel respond as quickly as possible.

Be diligent in reviewing your insurance policies. Are your property and structures insured at the correct values? Is your equipment covered? Even though the policy is big and boring, you have to know what's in it. Don't leave it entirely in the hands of an agent. Ask questions and review often.

Finally, like everything with horses, preparation is key. It comes down to having as much of a primary plan as you can. You just don't know what part of it you'll use until you're living it.

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Vanessa's story introduces our Wednesday Wisdom Summer Series, in which EAF grant recipients share their best wisdom and practical advice about navigating unexpected catastrophes. From medical crises to natural disasters, we've compiled a lot of tips that horse people can benefit from, so be sure to follow the weekly series on our Facebook and Instagram pages.

(Photo: Vanessa Karlewicz)