Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 11, 1995                   TAG: 9504180037
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

FIRE EVEN STOPPED TEAM OF WILD HORSES

Craig County residents Ted and Amy Watkins were driving down Virginia 311 on Sunday afternoon, going pretty slow because of the smoke and confusion.

"We came around a turn," Ted Watkins said, "and there was a team of workhorses. We were heading north, they were heading south.

"They were running full force at my wife and I."

The two huge horses were yoked together, a small plow on wheels still in tow. Watkins couldn't back up, and didn't know which direction to steer, so he stopped, pulled his wife down on the seat, and waited.

"They hit the front end of my Bronco ... broke the windshield. The Bronco stopped them," Watkins said. He jumped out and grabbed their reins. By now, others had gathered and helped bring the beasts under control.

Watkins said the horses belong to his neighbor, Lanier Frantz, who had decided to work the horses a little to calm them because they had been skittish all day from the smoke and fire.

It didn't work. The horses took off and, "left him on the ground," Watkins said.

Everyone, including the horses, came through unscathed except for Amy Watkins, who apparently suffered a sore back when her husband hurled her down on the truck seat.