'Hot hay' attributed to large barn fire just east of St. Thomas, Ont.
CTV
There is a strong smell of smoke in the air in St. Thomas and it doesn’t have anything to do with forest fires. A barn full of hay about one kilometre east of the city limits on Southdale Line in Central Elgin caught fire around 1 a.m.
There is a strong smell of smoke in the air in St. Thomas and it doesn’t have anything to do with forest fires.
A barn full of hay about one kilometre east of the city limits on Southdale Line in Central Elgin caught fire around 1 a.m.
“We arrived on scene and it was fully involved through the roof of the cover,” Murray DeCorte, Yarmouth district chief of the Central Elgin Fire Department told CTV News London around 2:30 a.m. “We’re attributing this to warm hay. When we got here we started pouring water on it as it was burning right through both ends of the barn.”
Bill Walters, the son of farm owners Steve and Betty Walters, was using a loader to take the hay out of the barn and moving to the side, as Central Elgin firefighters were pouring water on it to put out the flames.
“We’re slowly digging the hay out and we are putting it out as we dig it out,” said Decorte. “The structure is still standing so we can get in with the tractor and get it cleaned out.”
Betty Walters told CTV News London they are thankful the barn was the one at the farthest north end of the property, with no other structures close by.
“The wind is also good tonight,” said Walters.
