Colorado State University’s Equine Reproduction Lab in Fort Collins was lost in a fire
Monday night, causing $9-12 million in damages. No horses or humans were
harmed in the fire.
Courtesy of Colorado State University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
Colorado State University’s Equine Reproduction Laboratory staff is
continuing to assess the damages of the fire to the laboratory’s office
building. We are working closely with Poudre Fire Authority and
university health and safety officials. Unfortunately, the building was
destroyed by the fire, but there is hope that items within the building
will be recoverable and salvageable.
The extent of the loss of the building contents may not be known for
months. At this time, ERL staff and fire officials are working to
determine what building contents can be salvaged, which is a process
that will take days to weeks.
During the salvage and rebuilding of facilities, the ERL will
continue to offer clinical services to clients. Anyone who needs to
schedule a clinical service or has questions about an existing
appointment should call (970) 491-8626. ERL faculty expect to be able to
continue to offer all of their services, including breeding and foaling
services, immediately and continuing later this year and next year, as
usual.
The Equine Reproduction Laboratory will be able to continue to offer
general Mare Services, including ultrasound examinations, artificial
insemination, breeding soundness evaluations, embryo collection and
transfer, and most other standard services. Client mare services will
be performed in the examination stocks within the Mare Barn located
immediately south of the Classroom Building. The embryo transfer program
will shut down seasonally as usual on September 1. It is anticipated
that all Mare Services, including foaling out mares, will continue to be
available as usual in the 2012 breeding season.
We are continuing to assess insurance questions regarding the building and its contents.
Some ERL clients may have had semen, ooytes or embryos stored at the facility. We’d like our clients to know:
- Not all client samples were stored in the building that was damaged by the fire.
- ERL experts are still assessing the viability of the
samples. At this time, it’s too early to tell the extent of the damages.
While some samples may not be recoverable, we are taking every step
possible to salvage samples that may still be viable, including having
immediately removed the samples from the damaged building as soon as
safety personnel allowed access, and placing the samples back into ideal
storage conditions. - We will individually go through thousands of samples to
ensure each of our clients receives the best service possible. Because
we are taking extreme care with each sample and individually assessing
each one, we anticipate that it may take weeks to know which samples are
still viable. - We will begin communicating with each client individually
about the status of their samples and the steps we are taking as soon as
possible. - While we know this process will be lengthy, and we ask for
your patience. We are working as quickly as possible while still
exercising care with the samples and maintaining worker safety. We have
extra resources on site helping us during the recovery effort.
We appreciate the many offers of help we have received. However, due
to safety concerns and insurance documentation requirements, at this
time we cannot use any volunteers.
A fund is being established to help rebuild the facility and
donations are welcome. More information about that fund is available at https://advancing.colostate.edu/ERLREBUILD.
