Liverpool horse show fire

Really hope there were no other dogs, apart from the two that were rescued.
Will never understand why people think i is right to leave dogs shut in cars hour after hour as some do. If we go somewhere the dogs can not go, we leave them at home, and give the lady next door the keys. I have often seen dogs in cars at all sorts of places, and as happened in that car park, accidents DO happen.
 
There is an interview with a firefighter on Liverpool echo page and he says they got 4 dogs from one car on top floor and a further two from 2nd floor . Hopefully there were no others
 
These dogs were rescued.

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Two terriers are still unaccounted for.
 
eahotson said:
Thank goodness the dogs are safe.Possessions can be replaced upsetting as I know it all is.
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The news showed at least three dogs that survived because the cars were on the roof. They were rescued the following morning. We don’t know if any other of the cars had dogs that didn’t survive. I feel for all those who lost their cars and possessions, we lost a car in a fire but it was an isolated incident but still a shock. It caught fire as my husband was driving it, he said it was the only time the heating worked!
 
From what I have seen on social media, and the news, this incident was handled remarkably well by LIHS staff and those involved in the evacuation. For a venue that, I read, holds 11,000 people yet no one was hurt and horses rescued calmly and successfully is amazing. The videos of horses being led out in the dark with the burning building behind make your heart skip.

As for the dogs left in cars, it will never be acceptable. Unsure whether they were even allowed into the arena? And even so, an indoor shopping area and arena seating isn’t ideal for a dog. If you wish to have animals then you either must reside to the fact you cannot attend things for long periods of time or do what most people do and pay a neighbour, friend or pet sitter to check on them.
 
Just seen on fb that some poor soul lost a Butet and Antares saddle left in the car as they were shopping for girths.... OMG, feel my insurance premium rising.. AS IF!
 
This car park was a general car Park, not all people parking there would have been in the horse show, so although I disagree about leaving dogs in cars some people may have just left them for a short time, not several hours, and lets face it who would have thought for one minute a multi story car park would go up in flames the way it did.
 
Did anyone hear the interview on radio 4? Apparently the ground floor was being used as temporary stabling, and ( acoridng to the lady being interviewed) they were told not to evacuate the horses as the fire was going up ( luckily they did it anyway!)
 
alainax said:
Did anyone hear the interview on radio 4? Apparently the ground floor was being used as temporary stabling, and ( acoridng to the lady being interviewed) they were told not to evacuate the horses as the fire was going up ( luckily they did it anyway!)
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If it is the same as the first year the stabling was on the outside car park, right next to the multi storey, and not inside the ground floor of the multi storey. They should, of course, have been evacuated anyway in case of panic due to the smoke, but they were never in any danger apart from that.
 
They had both I think, you can see the outdoor stabling in the pics but also on the lower floor of the car park and it has been said that they have had it down there before.
 
Thanks Ester, it's obviously bigger than when it started. Though I'm confused how they can put stabling on the ground floor of a car park that requires the cars to drive round and round through the parking spaces to get up and down the levels. Maybe they've changed the configuration since I was there.

No doubt that it should have been evacuated anyway, it shows a huge lack of understanding about how horses can react to smoke. I've just seen it in the news and it burnt through the concrete floors !!!!

My first reaction is the dogs should not have been in cars, but really, why not? Nobody expects their car to burn in a multi storey car park and they may as well be asleep in bed in a car they know well as at home, surely? I'm not a dog owner, but I understand why they were there. Some of their owners may well have been staying in hotels where they could not be left.
 
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I struggle to leave my dog in a car to go into the shop to buy petrol never mind in a car park. The fumes can’t be healthy and it just seems wrong. You’re always told never to leave anything you don’t want stolen in a car and that applies to dogs.
 
Apparently the there was the added challenge of the water form the firefighters flooding into into the ground floor panicking a lot of horses. Well done to everyone who got them out!
 
I suspect it was a situation that changed quite rapidly and they perhaps thought initially that they were more secure to stay in the stabling, hindsight is always a wonderful thing.

I can't get too wound up about people leaving dogs in cars/large custom vans in moderate temperatures, you really don't plan for your vehicle to be caught up in a multilevel fire and am finding some of the FB calls for the owners to be prosecuted (no one seems clear what for) or to not get their dogs back a bit much.
 
They were evacuating at just after 5pm when we pulled in to the road leading to the car park. From people we spoke to and friends involved they were all moved to the arena pretty much immediately.

There was a lot of luck in many ways - had the wind changed direction it'd been much worse, if it hadn't have been 2 hours later the car park would've been fuller and there would've been more people to move out of the way.

The aerial footage of it shows the extent of the damage. I do hope that the insurance companies don't start messing people around.
 
ester said:
I suspect it was a situation that changed quite rapidly and they perhaps thought initially that they were more secure to stay in the stabling, hindsight is always a wonderful thing.

I can't get too wound up about people leaving dogs in cars/large custom vans in moderate temperatures, you really don't plan for your vehicle to be caught up in a multilevel fire and am finding some of the FB calls for the owners to be prosecuted (no one seems clear what for) or to not get their dogs back a bit much.
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One of the security guards said they'd thought they'd caught it, and it literally went wrong when their backs were turned.

But I guess it won't be know exactly how it all happened for sure until the paperwork gets completed.

There were comments on the radio supposedly from the fire service that said sprinklers would've helped possibly. Who knows.
 
The insurers will have a lot of flack to get through, eg the valuable saddles left in a car whilst the owners shopped for matching girths, Sad sign of the times I guess..
 
The car that started it did seem to be on the edge so would have been more susceptible to any wind effects I guess. I did wonder given that most multistoreys are pretty set up with firefighting stuff how it wasn't able to be put out quickly enough so your descriptions makes sense Nugget.

I've never seen a sign say that cobgoblin, though only frequent a couple.
 
ester said:
I can't get too wound up about people leaving dogs in cars/large custom vans in moderate temperatures, you really don't plan for your vehicle to be caught up in a multilevel fire and am finding some of the FB calls for the owners to be prosecuted (no one seems clear what for) or to not get their dogs back a bit much.
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prosecute them for what? that is ludicrous. No one can foresee a multi storey car park fire. If they had none of them would have parked in it.

I don't see a problem leaving a dog in a car. It usually has a bed and is happily fast asleep. Many like travelling and accompanying their owners. If some of my dogs had the choice of being left home alone or travelling in their vehicle which they loved, being left for a couple of hours to sleep with a chew and then another couple of hours home I know which they would have chosen. I would be the one worrying, not about a multi storey fire but about them being stolen. They would have no worries.

What happens if people take their dogs abroad, say across the channel on the ferry. Do the dogs accompany their owners on deck or do they have to stay in the car? Similarly horses crossing the channel and being left in their lorries for long periods.
 
lol I've not been on those :). It came up elsewhere that someone consider that essential travel for the dogs so that was ok, but I think they were just going on holiday.
Yes I think we can be fairly sure they won't do the same again.
 
So glad there were no casualties it could of been so much worse. I do find it hard to grasp that anyone would leave their dogs unattended in any situation, I would always be worried they could be stolen or even worse a fire.
 
Who is going to steal a dog from a car park where every inch is being covered by CCTV and the site is crawling with security, and access for a fast getaway is impossible due to the layout of the exit onto a short spur road onto a major congested inner city road via light control?

This wasn't a twenty acre unpatrolled car park at Birmingham International. It's a city centre on one side and the Mersey on the other!

It's a VERY compact site, the dogs were never more than a couple of hundred yards from their owners at any time.
 
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