2 people, 65 horses killed in Ohio fire

Two people and 65 horses were killed Saturday when a blaze engulfed a barn at an Ohio harness racing track, a state fire official said, CNN reported.

The fire destroyed a large enclosure at the Lebanon Raceway near Cincinnati in southwestern Ohio.

One of the people killed was a man, and there was no information yet on the other, state Fire Marshal spokesman Shane Cartmill said. Autopsies will be conducted Sunday, he said.

There are 80 stalls in the barn, and 65 stalls were occupied. All the horses in those stalls died.

Firefighters kept the flames from spreading to other barns, officials told CNN affiliate WHIO-TV. State and local fire officials are working to determine what sparked the fire.

Firefighters from 11 departments who got the call just before 5 a.m. were clearing debris and extinguishing hot spots Saturday morning.

The Warren County Fair Board, which operates the track, confirmed the deaths and the destruction of the barn but couldn't say how many horses were killed. It said in a statement that harness racing scheduled for Saturday night had been canceled.

However, a popular traditional horse parade in Lebanon is scheduled to go on as planned later in the day, WHIO reported.

For more than 50 years, the fair board has been operating the county fairgrounds, which includes "a harness racing track and supporting facilities that are leased for harness racing meets to two harness racing clubs," according to the statement.

Another barn fire at the fairgrounds killed 35 horses in 1988, Warren County Commissioner Pat South said, according to the Springfield (Ohio) News-Sun newspaper.