35 Horses Die in North Georgia Stable Fire

35 horses died in a stable fire in northwest Georgia Friday morning.

The fire broke out around 8:30 a.m. at the Happy Valley Farms in Rossville which is in Walker County near the Tennessee line.

Georgia Safety, Fire and Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens says the state fire marshal and federal investigators are trying to determine the cause.

But Hudgens says, so far, there is nothing to indicate arson, adding “The losses were somewhere in the neighborhood of $6 million, and the insurance is only going to cover $1.2 million. There’s no motivation there at all to have an insured loss.”

A trainer did manage to rescue one horse.

Because stables are considered agricultural buildings, state fire laws do not require any kind of sprinkler systems.