SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (WRGB) \u2014 As investigators continue to search for answers after the deadly barn fire at Saratoga Casino Hotel that killed more than a dozen race horses, animal advocates are calling for changes they say could help prevent another similar tragedy from happening in the future.<\/p>\n
The tragedy in Saratoga Springs this week comes less than three years after 30 race horses were killed in a barn fire at Tioga Downs Casino.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose horses died a horrible death. The ones in Tioga Downs, it was cited that people heard the horses screaming as they burned to death,\u201d said Pat Valusek, Chair of the New York State Humane Association.<\/p>\n
On November 9, 2023, Boyd Fenton set fire to a racehorse barn at Tioga Downs Casino in Nichols, killing 30 horses and three cats inside. He pled guilty and was sentenced to 5-15 years in prison. <\/p>\n
The New York State Humane Association is calling on the state to set fire safety requirements for racetrack barns.<\/p>\n
Since the standard bread industry gets over a million dollars annually from taxpayer subsidies, it only seems reasonable that a portion of that money should be spent on enacting reforms such as sprinkler systems in the horse racing barns,\u201d Valusek said.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the NYS Gaming Commission stated that race track structures are required to comply with local building codes and provide proof of that compliance as part of their annual track application.<\/p>\n
The commission said the barn destroyed this week was found to be compliant by the city of Saratoga Springs.<\/p>\n
When asked whether the commission is considering statewide fire safety requirements, including sprinkle systems, the commission stated, \u201cThe Commission offers its deepest condolences to all the connections of the horses lost in Tuesday\u2019s fire. Staff have been assisting state and local authorities with their investigation as needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The push is now reaching the state capitol. Assemblymember Carrie Woerner and Senator Pat Fahy introduced legislation in their respective chambers that would give the commission the authority to require it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve written the language broadly enough that it could include not just fire suppression, but also alarms and communications, so if there’s smoke it immediately sends a signal to the dispatch,\u201d said Woerner.<\/p>\n
The legislation would also require the commission to set fire suppression standards for barns at racing facilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (WRGB) \u2014 As investigators continue to search for answers after the deadly barn fire at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-271441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}