Barn Burner

I went straight from work to a barn fire yesterday--8 hours at a barn fire. Then five hours of sleep, then the discovery that I'd be working a 12 hour shift, instead of 8. I'm paying for that today.

The nearest department (Albion) was already on a first responder call at the time, for a person injured in a woods. I'd just gotten off shift, and walked out of the dispatch bathroom to discover there was now a second call, which explains how I ended up on the first-in truck. An Avilla fire officer was actually first on the scene, just ahead of our engine, as he was already out for the earlier call.

On arrival we found a large quonset style metal barn full of hay, fully involved, along with a burning tractor and wagon out front, and another farm implement inside that exploded just as we were stretching the first line. (A tire blew, I suspect--not the biggest explosion ever.) The metal tended to hold the heat in, power was still on in the building, and it took a great deal of time to pull the hay out and get it spread out in a field, where unfortunately it would go on smoldering for awhile. When fire spreading under a wall was pointed out to me, I saved a large amount of round hay bales stored outside--pretty much by accident, by throwing a stream down the length of the building (There was no manpower to advance the line further). I'm getting a bit too old to manhandle a 2 1/2 inch hoseline by myself. But later I found the outside bales had been scorched, so if I hadn't we'd have had double trouble.

These were taken a little ways into the fire, when I realized my cell phone was in my pocket. I still don't think of it first as a photo taking device ... plus, I was a little busy for awhile. That would be Albion in the black turnout gear, and I believe Ligonier in the tan.

Right after the Albion and Orange Township Fire Departments were paged out, a response from Ligonier was also requested. Not long after it became obvious this would be a water and manpower intensive campaign, so help was called in from the Kendallville, Avilla, Noble Township, and Sparta Township (Cromwell) Fire Departments. I believe that covers everyone, not including standby units.

Noble County EMS was there (thankfully we didn't need them), and I want to give a special shout-out to the Noble REMC linemen who climbed the most rickety pole I ever saw (they couldn't get their truck close to it) to not only shut off power to the barn, but redirect it so the rest of the farm wouldn't be without electricity. It would be just as dangerous as me spraying water on a fire, only if I was doing it while hanging twenty feet up in a tree surrounded by live power lines.