Wellington, FL: Community Risk Reduction

By Battalion Chief R. R. Nemesek - Columbia Southern University

Introduction

            Wellington, Florida is home to the world famous Winter Equestrian Festival, and at any given time has thousands of horses within the service area of the Palm Beach County Fire Department.  At the peak of season, there can be 17,000 – 20,000 horses in Wellington (Capone 2019).  With this influx, and on a daily basis in Wellington, thousands of bales of hay and bags of shavings are stored and consumed.  Thousands of fans are run 24/7 in open air buildings.  Soiled shavings and manure are stored in close proximity to wooden structures.  On Wellington’s main show grounds, horses live in wooden barns with more than 40 stalls running fans in each stall (Montague 2015).  The barns are close together.  Despite large risks for fire, I doubt that even one groom in charge of these hundreds of stalls on-property and thousands off-property would be able to access a fire extinguisher quickly or have even a basic knowledge of fire prevention and safety.  The same goes for the owners and the riders.  There is a major need for a focused program to address equestrian property safety and education of equestrian workers, riders, owners, trainers, farriers and vets to ensure the risk of fire, destruction and death at equestrian properties is dropped.

Risk Topic, Problem & Purpose Statement, Demographic Information

The CRR analysis for Wellington, Florida has identified three major risks to the local equestrian community with regard to fire hazards.  Lack of education, daily risk reduction, and an incident action plan implementation.  The problem is there is no set fire safety education, safety standards, or SOP (standard operating procedures) for equestrians.  Even lifelong equestrians have very little fire training, despite growing up and living in close proximity to major fire risks (Johnson, personal communication, 2022).  Right now the extent of fire safety training or response is to call 911, which unfortunately have proven to be insufficient on the relatively rare occasion that a barn has caught fire.  Most recently, a 2016 barn fire in Lake Worth caused by an unknown electrical malfunction resulted in 12 equine deaths (Roustan, Cavaretta 2016).  The rate at which it spread and the loss of life was extreme, despite it being reported fairly quickly.  Supply storage and other items accelerated the blaze.  Fire crews are only trained to put out fires and rescue trapped horses (Webb 2018).  The purpose statement for this CRR plan would be implementing an educational program for equestrians and their communities, as well as for the crews in charge of rescuing animals and putting out fires, and that this would help to reduce this risk and prevent potential large scale fires and losses in Wellington, Florida. Demographically, Wellington represents a very seasonal and diverse group of residents.  During season, the community welcomes many national and international travelers, who come to compete, ride, work, and enjoy the Winter Equestrian Festival.  The city is located in the western part of Palm Beach County, along with sister cities like Royal Palm Beach, Loxahatchee, and Lake Worth, and is served by Palm Beach County Fire Rescue.  Below is a cross section of the demographics of Wellington, Florida and the Palm Beach County Fire Department.

Wellington, FL & Equestrian Demographics

(DataUSA.io 2019)

Population

64,396

Total square miles

45.41mi

Community housing make up

Large private equestrian estates, suburban homes, townhomes

Risk locations:

(Chronicle of the Horse 2019)

Housing for more than 15,000 horses

Fans, 3 bales/horse/week, 5-10 bags of shavings per week

Palm Beach International Equestrian Center

256 permanent (wood) stabling, additional 1k approx. tent stabling

Egress issues

Horses are locked in stalls, difficult to access/free, narrow aisles blocked by tack trunks, etc

Palm Beach County Fire Rescue

(Discover.PBCgov.org 2022)

Annual 911 calls

144,000

Total fire stations

49, including 5 in Wellington

Total employees

1700

Non-emergency services

Fire & arson, building inspections, construction review, community education, mobile health integrated programs, CARES team

Number of equestrian related calls, non fire (falls, kicks, etc) from the show grounds (PBIEC)

~ 12 to 20 per month, with season being the higher percentage

Barn related/fire calls

<20/month

Equestrian related Trauma Hawk calls

3-4 per season, <1 per month average yearly

Total number of barn fire calls in 2019-2021

68

References

Copone, G. M. (2019). Equestrian Committee Reviews Venue Data and Horse Counts. Wellington Town Crier:0/equestrian-committee-reviews-venue-data-and-horse-counts/ 

Montague, T. (2015).  A City of Horses. BiostarBlog:

https://blog.biostarus.com/wellington-city-of-horses/

Johnson H. N. (2022). Personal communication. Equestrian professional

Cavaretta, J. & W. Roustan, (2016). 12 Horses Die in fire at equestrian center. Sun Sentinel.com:  https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/palm-beach/fl-palm-horses-dead-trotting-center-20160316-story.html 

Webb, K. (2019). Yes, Palm Beach Fire Crews Actually Train to Rescue Horses. PalmBeachPost.com: https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/local/2018/02/16/new-yes-palm-beach-county/6954642007/