One of the heroic women who risked her life to save multiple horses from a Stourbridge wildfire has told GB News of the split-second decision which saved them.
Speaking to the People’s Channel, Charlotte Griffith from the Sugarloaf Equestrian Centre recalled the moment they were notified of several horses stuck in a burning field as the flames quickly spread.
Recounting what happened, Ms Griffith told GB News of the moment she and her colleagues received the phone call.
She said: “There was a big group of us who were involved from Sugarloaf, so our yard manager and head girl had gone down to look at what was going on, and one of the girls, Izzy, got a phone call to say what was happening.
“And so me, Sophie, Ellie and Izzy got picked up by Helen to go down there, and those three horses were in the field, which was on fire.”
Ms Griffith revealed that because the horses were not theirs, they then had to quickly contact the owners to find out the combination to the locked gate to allow them to rescue the horses.
She recalled: “They were our friend’s horses, they weren’t actually ours, so we got the combination off of them, got the gate open and went in.
“We caught the horses, and then we ended up going up Racecourse Lane, through the Norton estate, and then someone came and picked them up in a horse box.”
The rescuer told GB News that due to the size of the blaze, the horses would have died had they been stuck there any longer.
She said: “Within seconds the field was gone, it was just engulfed with the smoke and the fire, it was awful.
“If we’d left the horses in there any longer, they would have ended up getting burnt.”
Asked whether she and her team were “hesitant” to enter the smoke and flames to rescue the horses, Ms Griffith said that for all of them, it was a case of “just going in and doing it”.
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She explained: “I think for all of us, it was just a moment of just go in and do it, I don’t think any of us thought about it.
“I think if we’d left the horses in there any longer, they would have ended up getting burnt, it was awful.
“It was moving so quickly, and you can see how much the fire spread over Stourbridge, so, yeah, I think it was just adrenaline, all of us just went right, we’ve got to go in and get those horses, so that’s what we did.”
Asked if the horses were difficult to rescue, Ms Griffith revealed they were “huddled in a little group” watching the fire, so they were able to retrieve them fairly easily.
She said: “When we got there, they were just stood in a small group, they were just watching the fire, so they were easy to catch.
“They had some pony nuts for them just to catch them, to make it easier because we didn’t want spook them or anything.
“So we went in, got the horses, and they seemed like they were a little bit on edge, especially on the road and stuff, because there was a lot going on, there was firefighters, fire engines, police, loads of members of public community, everything.
“So there was a lot going on, and I think that didn’t help with it, but they were pretty calm considering what was going on.”
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