LAFAYETTE, N.J., Jan. 21 (UPI) -- Authorities were investigating a fire that tore through a New Jersey horse barn the size of a football field early Saturday, killing 22 show horses.

Sgt. Brian Polite, a state police spokesman, said flames had engulfed the barn at Heritage Acres farm in Lafayette in rural Sussex County about 1:40 a.m. and quickly destroyed the barn, The (Newark) Star-Ledger reported.

Heritage Acres owners Art and Betty Hahn, who for 46 years have raised horses to compete in prestigious shows, will give up the family business.

"I guess anything can happen and it did," said Betty Hahn, 73. "We're just going to sell our property. It was our business and we're too old to start over."

She struggled to come to grips with the loss.

"I'm so numb and so hurt that I can't cry," she said. "It would probably feel better if I could."

Though the barn had no hay or fuel inside and no wiring problems, it burned extraordinarily quickly.

"It just went up like an inferno," Hahn said.

Joseph Inga, Sussex County's fire marshal, said authorities have not determined whether the fire was suspicious. He and state police were investigating, Inga said.

"I can't say it is [suspicious] and I can't say it isn't," Inga said. "It's going to take a while."

But like Betty Hahn, he said the barn burned surprisingly quickly.

"The barn was completely engulfed by the time the first responders showed up," Inga said.

The horses kept in Heritage Acres stables -- dressage, reining and jumper horses -- placed in competitions along the East Coast, and Betty Hahn estimated they were valued at $10,000-$60,000 each.

To their owners, they were priceless.

Marion Georgiev, a horse trainer and riding instructor at Chisamba Farm in Lafayette who said she was responsible for four horses that died at Heritage Acres, visited the farm Saturday morning to offer consolation to the Hahns.

"I don't know if everyone understands the bond between horse people and a horse," Georgiev said. "There are so many things you learn from them. They only care about how you treat them, and if you make a mistake, they forgive you. And when you ride a horse, that bond grows even more because they allow you do something you can't do yourself."