INQUIRER Sports

LEBANON, Ohio, United States?A blaze ripped through a horse barn Saturday at county fairgrounds her, leaving two trainers and 43 horses dead, state officials said.

By the time firefighters arrived at the Warren County Fairgrounds, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northeast of Cincinnati, the barn roof had already collapsed, according to Lebanon Fire Department Captain Krista Wyatt.

Dozens of firefighters had fought the flames that burned for hours in the sprawling barn, which is about the size of a football field, close to the Lebanon Raceway track.

The deadly blaze, which was reported around 5 a.m. (1000 GMT), was still under investigation and its specific origin will not be released until Monday, State Fire Marshal Division spokesman Shane Cartmill told the Dayton Daily News.

Fire investigators said they have ruled out criminal intent, while the fire marshal noted it could take weeks before officials would determine the cause.

Track officials canceled races for the day.

Shocked horse owners watched heavy machinery peel back the collapsed structure's metal roof before firefighters sifted through the debris and put out the remains of the fire.

"It's terrible," Mary Coven, who owns horses stabled in one of the fairgrounds' 19 barns, told the newspaper.

Although coroner officials could not confirm the identities of two badly burned human bodies pulled from the barn, horse owners told the Dayton Daily News that trainers Ronnie Williams and James "Turtle" Edwards had been in the burning structure.

Lamar Moody, lead trainer at the harness racing track based at the fairgrounds, had earlier said two of his employees were missing.

The Warren County Coroner's Office was set to conduct autopsies early Sunday.

The fairgrounds do not allow people to stay in the stables overnight, but it was unclear whether the two victims had slept there or come to work early.

South Lebanon resident Kyle McClung said he lost seven horses in the blaze, including six-year-old mare Hoosier Flash, who won the 14th race at the Lebanon Raceway hours before the fire.

"Everything we own is right there," McClung said.

Hours after the fire, tens of thousands of spectators filled downtown Lebanon close to the scene of the accident to watch the annual horse-drawn carriage parade?one of the largest of its kind in the country?and Christmas festival.

A 1988 blaze at the county-owned racetrack and fairgrounds killed 35 horses but left no people dead.