'Flames were 60 feet high'; Barn fire causes $2M in damage ahead of harvest season

Massive fire causes 2 million dollars in damage CTV London's Brent Lale reports on a Newbury farmer returned home to see his livelihood in ruins

The flames and glow could be seen for kilometres.

"That silo is 60 feet high and the flames were at the top of that," says Chad Fennell, whose barn caught fire late Saturday night near Newbury, Ont.

Fennell was on vacation with his family in Kapuskasing, Ont. and got a call near 11 p.m. as he was getting into bed.

"My neighbor that was baling some straw called me and said 'your barn’s on fire and it’s really bad'", says Fennell.

"The phone calls kept rolling, so I popped in my truck, packed my family up and drove till I got here."

After a nearly 10 hour drive, he returned home to find his property in ruins.

"I lost 400 square bales of hay, I have two missing barns, lost three junk silos, I have no winter feed, and less equipment than I left with," says Fennell.

More than 50 fire fighters from Newbury Fire, Brooke-Alvinston Fire and South West Middlesex Fire Department (SWMFD) responded and worked through the night pouring 73,500 gallons of water on the blaze.

"We're estimating the loss of $2 million," says Colin Shewell, Middlesex Fire Coordinator, and SWMFD chief.

"But with the great work of our firefighters we're able to contain the fire and limit the damage to that it could have been a lot worse. They spent all night there, and this is a great example of mutual aid with our partners. Not only in our county, but in Lambton county as well."

Throughout the morning neighbours and friends have been arriving at his farm to show support and offer help in any way they can. Overnight between 15-20 people showed up at the farm.

"They were getting the water sorted out for the cattle," says Fennell.

"My employees, neighbours and friends floated my high hoe down here and worked until six in the morning with the fire department trying to get everything shut down and see what they could save a lot of stuff. The fire department and all my friends, employees and family worked really f---ing hard last night."

Fennell was told by the fire investigator that the blaze is believed to be started in the feed room.

It was full of dust, and either a racoon, rat or just a short set the dust on fire, then the south wind took it to the hay barn.

"Even if I was here, there's nothing anybody could have done once it started because it just went up so quick," says Fennell.

He has insurance, although he isn’t sure what will be covered. As he comes to grips with what happened, he now has worries about what is next.

"We got a few problems here," says Fennell.

"I’ve got no grain storage for the fall. I got not nearly enough winter feed for the cattle and I'm missing some key implements that I are go-to implements. It’s going to be a bit of an uphill battle here."