CENTRE WELLINGTON – A Friday night fire was knocked down quickly, thanks to a quick thinking homeowner.
At about 11:20pm on Sept. 27 Centre Wellington Fire Rescue Services was called to a barn fire on the 3rd Line in Centre Wellington.
The property owner said there were horses on the property but they were not in the barn that was ablaze.
Deputy fire chief Jonathan Karn said the barns were all in close proximity.
“When I got there what it ended up being was about a 40 by about 200 foot long open ended Quonset hut,” Karn said.
The structure was used for storage and some of the round hay bales were too close to the heat source, which in this case was an older-style light bulb.
“It did burn some of the roof and the round bales,” Karn said.
Because the property owner was working in the Quonset hut, covered with a vinyl roof, he saw the fire start and was able to call emergency services immediately.
“We were able to get there quickly before anything else, other items in the Quonset hut started fire,” Karn said.
In total the fire caused between $300 and $400 damage in round bale loss and about $20,000 for a roof replacement.
“There’s a fairly decent sized burn hole in the one end and he didn’t believe he would be able to patch that type of thing,” Karn said.
No one was injured during the emergency, and because the call came in as a barn fire about 29 firefighters from both the Fergus and Elora stations.
Some firefighters remained on scene for about an hour and a half after arrival.
“We had to pull the bales apart and make sure everything was extinguished and make sure the roof was out as well,” Karn said.
The fire is not deemed suspicious.
Good reminder
“It’s a good reminder for everyone to take care if there’s heating appliances, and when they’re starting to use the barns now more for hay storage and things like that to be aware of where they’re storing their items and potentially putting combustible materials next to heat sources,” Karn said.
