A 16-year-old from Bishop, GA didn’t hesitate to run into a burning barn in the middle of the night to save about 14 Clydesdale horses.
It was about 2 a.m. when lighting struck the barn of Classic City Clydesdales located and Macon Martin’s family farm.
“It shook the whole house,” Macon’s mom, Shannon Martin, told USA Today. “One minute I am in bed. The next minute I am standing up next to the bed trying to figure out what bomb went off.”
Though it was pouring rain, the lighting had started a fire in the barn.
“I just had on my underwear, but all I could think about was the animals,” Maron, who was also shoeless, said.
Macon, his father, and brother ran about a half mile down to the barn to attend to the fire, which ended up quickly spreading.
“We went outside and put the fire out on the electrical box, and within 5 minutes, we could see our barn was on fire with all the horses inside. It only took a few minutes before the house was fully engulfed,” Macon, a 16-year-old Oconee County high school student, told FOX 35 Orlando.
Family is praising quick thinking 16 y.o. aftr lightning strikes Oconee Co barn. All 50 Clydesdales rescued @fox5atl pic.twitter.com/x4uTAZjhVA
— Portia Bruner (@PortiaFOX5) February 24, 2016
The horses were obviously in distress, including a new 3-week-old colt.
The power had gone out, and the barn doors were locked.
Flames were engulfing the door and the rest of the barn, so no one was able to open the large overhead doors to get the horses out.
That’s when Macon had a brilliant idea and sprung into action to save the horses.
“The doors are electric, so I used the Gator (utility vehicles) to ram through the doors of the barn, then my dad and my brother went in to let the horses out,” he said.
Shannon said her son busted through those barn doors “like Rambo.”
The horses were so terrified that they wouldn’t move at first and had to be pushed out.
“I just can’t, can’t tell you how proud I am. Macon stayed so calm, calmer than all of us,” said Shannon said.
Macon’s older brother, Austin Beauchamp, credit his younger brother’s quick thinking with saving the lives of the horses.
“Heck yeah, I’m proud of that guy. If he hadn’t done what he did, we’d all be a whole lot worse off than we are right night,” Austin said.
Thankfully, no one suffered any serious injuries, and all of the horses were brought to safety.
Unfortunately, the barn was in complete ruins.
Family and friends have already started to help rebuild the barn.
“It will take some time to rebuild,” Shannon Martin said. “This was a dream. We saved and built it brick by brick. We’ll have to start over.”
She’s more worried about the horses anyway.
“Big horses everybody thinks (are) real tough,” she said. “But Clydes are sort of the beauty queens of the draft horse world. They can be pretty fragile.”
A GoFundMe was set up to assist the family in their building which exceeded its $5,000 goal and raised $7,205. A new coal was born shortly after the fire and was named Fire Feenix.
Check out a video of Macon with one of the horses below!
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