CENTRE WELLINGTON – The cause of a fire that destroyed a 19th-century barn on the 4th Line on Dec. 13 remains undetermined, but it has not been deemed suspicious.
It’s possible an electrical short might have been to blame, but “we’re not going to be able to say that for sure because of the amount of damage,” Centre Wellington deputy fire chief Jonathan Karn told the Advertiser on Saturday morning.
Firefighters had returned to the property to deal with hot spots as ice-covered beams continued to smoulder.
A few flames sparked to life every so often, and smoke billowed from the barn’s lower level as firefighters doused them with water and shovels full of snow.
Homeowner Fred Booth said it was his wife who discovered the fire around 6:30pm on Friday.
“Lyanne went out to check on the cows, and she came running back and said it was on fire,” Booth said.
“I don’t know what started it . . . But once it started, it just went.”
The two cows are fine. They had left the barn on their own, and had gone into the back field, and Booth said his wife had closed the gate to keep them there.
He went to the barn, and managed to drive the tractor out, but said it felt like a scene from a movie.
“I was backing it out and the flames were kind of all around it,” Booth said.
There was nothing more that could be saved.
This photo taken by Centre Wellinton deputy fire chief Jonathan Karn shows a barn on 4th Line fully engulfed in flames.
Submitted photo
“We use the barn mostly for storage,” said Booth.
Unfortunately, his son was in the process of moving houses, and had packed up some personal belongings – about 30 boxes worth – and stored those in the barn.
“Those 30 boxes that my son lost, there’s all kinds of stuff in there,” said Booth.
There were also other personal belongings stored for other family members and some of their own stuff.
“We had so much family stuff in there,” said Booth. “Those 30 boxes of those treasures are gone.”
The barn itself is a significant loss, with Booth noting he believes it was built in the 1870s, and the couple had put work into restoring it.
“It was such a beautiful barn,” he said, adding that by 8pm, it was gone.
He noted firefighters took only about eight minutes to arrive, but by the time they got there, the structure was fully engulfed.
“When we arrived the barn was fully involved in fire,” Karn confirmed, noting that was about 7pm.
“With an older barn and hay and everything else, it doesn’t take much for that to go quickly.”
Altogether, he said there were about 30 firefighters on the scene, with stations in Elora and Fergus both responding to the call.
“We also had water tanker assistance from Rockwood,” Karn said.
It may have taken the Rockwood department a little longer to reach the fire because of a bridge that is closed – and has been for years – on 4th Line north of Wellington Road 22.
But Karn said the bridge wasn’t a problem for Centre Wellington firefighters coming from the north.
“We knew beforehand where this was in relation to the closed bridge, so it didn’t affect us,” he said.
The weather, however, did cause some difficulty, he added, noting temperatures in the minus-20 C range caused water lines to freeze.
“We definitely had some complications with the cold weather,” he said.
This was part of the reason firefighters opted to return to finish the job the following morning, he said.
Booth said a neighbour across the road has offered to take the cows, and despite the loss, he feels grateful it wasn’t worse.
“Luckily the barn is far away from the house,” he said.
