Columbus, OH --- A barn fire on the Yale, Mich. farm of Tom and Jean Clark has claimed the lives of five Standardbreds. The cause of the fire and the identities of the horses are not immediately known.

The Croswell, Mich. Fire Department was summoned to the farm by Jean Clark just after midnight last night. According to press reports she rushed to the two-story barn but was turned back by the intense heat.

Croswell Fire Chief Tom Dickensheets said the barn was a 40 by 120 foot structure, which also contained 3,000 bales of hay at the time it caught fire. An adjacent structure, 80 by 80 foot, that contained farm machinery, was saved by firefighters.

Dickensheets told the Port Huron Times Herald that the cause of the blaze would be investigated, but that it was “not considered suspicious.”

On Wednesday night, Tom Clark was racing one of his horses, Wash Out, at Northville Downs, and thus the 7-year-old pacer was spared the fate of his stablemates. The newspaper account said that the horses lost were a 2-year-old, 3-year-old, two 4-year-olds and one 7-year-old.