Experts speculate the fire began from spontaneous combustion. The Washington Post reported in its August 29 edition on a conflict between a herd of Spanish Mustang horses and new residents of a North Carolina barrier island. The herd, which is estimated to be between 50 and 200 horses, has lived on one of the islands for years. When new residents, many from the Washington D.C. area, began building expensive homes on the island, trouble broke out between them and the Mustang herd. This led to part of the herd being trailered to the mainland.
Many horses remain.
They have been isolated in the northern part of the island, but that does not seem a permanent solution for no governmental agency wishes to assume responsibility for them. In addition, that portion of the island contains a wildlife refuge for endangered species of birds which, federal officials claim, is disrupted by the horses. Conflicts have including grazing on new, expensive lawns, dangers posed to motorists on the island's winding, narrow roads, horses shading themselves in municipal car ports, and one incident in which a small herd attempted to break into a grocery store in search of more carrots. The Christian Science Monitor contained in its August 26 edition a first-person story by Susan Wunder about purchasing a pair of Belgian draft horses at a farm auction. They out-bid an Amish farmer and returned in two weeks to pick up the horses.