FERRISBURGH — An early-morning fire on Friday destroyed a hay barn and its contents at 1535 Monkton Road, a Ferrisburgh farm owned by Allan Brisson.
About 40 firefighters and 14 pieces of equipment from Vergennes, Ferrisburgh, New Haven, Addison and Monkton responded to the 2 a.m. fire, according to Vergennes Fire Chief Jim Breur, speaking from the scene at about 9:15 a.m. on Friday.
The barn was fully involved in flames when firefighters arrived, but they were able to put out the main fire within 20 minutes or half an hour, Breur said, and prevent it from damaging other nearby structures or farm equipment. No one was hurt.
Breur, whose Vergennes department was the first responder, praised the work of all five departments.
“Everybody did a great job, and they’re doing a great job. Everybody’s tired. We’ve been here since 2, and we’ve still got a long way to go,” he said.
The fire in the barn, on top of a rise about a mile-and-a-half east of Vergennes, lit up the night sky.
“I could see it when I was coming down Panton Road,” Breur said.
The barn contained square, 1,100-pound hay bales stacked high. There was no power to it, and Breur said no cause has been determined, nor is the fire considered suspicious.
Because of the size of the smoking bales and lack of wind, smoke hung around the scene according to witnesses as the bales smoldered. Firefighters through the night and Friday morning were breaking up the bales, soaking them, and using trucks and loaders to spread them around surrounding fields.
“We’re doing the best we can to put it out,” Breur said. “It’s going to smolder for a good week out in the field. We’re moving it away so it’s not going to catch anything else on fire.”
Breur expected he and firefighters to be on the scene for a while.
“It is a long, slow, tedious process,” he said. “We’re going thought a lot of water. I’ve got four tankers on the road still.”