Fast Thinking By Local Youth Saves Lives Of Animals

The recent quick thinking of a Fairbury youth not only saved structural damage of a barn but the lives of several animals. On January 25 Katelin Kline, a sixth grader in Fairbury, was at the farm of Galen Napier, where her horse, Dodger, is being housed. Doing her regular chores, Katelin noticed something off that day.“I was pulling up water for the horses because they were out and I started to smell smoke,” Katelin said. “I ran into the barn and I looked up and there was smoke by the light. So I turned off the lights because I thought the lights were smoking,” Katelin said.The daughter of Dr. Burke and Andrea Kline, Katelin wasted little time jumping into action.“I made sure all the horses were out. And then I called Becky (Bruce, Galen’s daughter) she didn’t answer. So I called my mom. And then I talked to Becky through my mom. And then they both came out and they started saying there’s a lot of smoke.”Katelin realized there weren’t just horses that needed to be saved.“So then we had to get the cow out of the stall because we realized that the smoke was coming from a heat lamp that fell,” Katelin said. After some investigation, it appears a heat lamp set up for young calf, Buttercup, had a piece melt and drip into the hay.When initially contacted, Andrea thought maybe there was just some dust being kicked up around the light.“We’re like okay, maybe there’s dust around the light, you know, like not thinking, but when we arrived there was smoke coming out of the barn and the barn was filled with smoke,” Andrea said. “That’s when Becky went around looking at all the lights and then when she got to the cow stall and when and discovered that the heat lamp had fallen and started a fire.”Power to the lights were shut off to prevent any further damage.“We are very proud of her,” Andrea said. “If she waited to shut off the lights it would have been a lot worse for sure.” The experience left Katelin in a heightened sense the rest of the night.“Because I kept on thinking like it was going to get worse and like the barn could like potentially burn down and stuff,” Katelin said.During her quick thinking actions, she removed six horses from the area, placing them at a safe distance.There was minor damage to the barn with smoke damage still evident.“You can still smell the smoke,” Galen Napier said. “(The damage is) not terrible just the one corner of the stall.”Galen was at a Fairbury basketball game during the incident and found out later about the barn.“She’s very smart. She just sprung into action,” Galen said.“I am just proud of her quick thinking,” Andrea said.

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