Firefighters couldn't enter smoky structure for fear it would collapse

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CARSONVILLE -

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Kelly / KCR

Millstream and Sussex firefighters fought to save this barn in Carsonville the afternoon of May 7. The building was eventually consumed by fire, but not before the animals were taken to safety.

A barn was destroyed in an early afternoon fire at Whispering Birch Ranch Wednesday.

Millstream Fire Department captain Ron Davis said they were called out at 12:28 p.m. He said luckily, the owner, whom he identified as Kevin Ward, was able to get his horses and later his tractor, out in time.

"We had a report there were animals in the building when they first called it so it sounded bad," Davis said. "It was half gone when we got there."

Dark smoke from the fire, about 20 minutes north of Sussex, was visible a few kilometers away.

The cause of the fire hasn't been determined yet but Davis said they believe it started in the workshop potion of the old converted turkey barn.

"There's any number of things in there that could have triggered it," he said.

While Millstream and later Sussex firefighters battled the blaze, they discovered the building had been insulated with wood shavings, making it almost impossible to put the fire out.

It also meant that firefighters were not able to enter the barn to fight the fire. The shavings act like a sponge and the water-logged wood then becomes very unstable.

"Probably the middle stage of it," Davis said, "I reached in with a pole and push on the ceiling through a window and it was just, not bouncing, but bobbing up and down, so I knew it was just a matter of time before it collapsed, and it did before the building burnt down."

Davis said he believes the owner had insurance, which Ward can be thankful for, because there wasn't much left after the fire was finally extinguished.