'Fuel tanks were a worry': Central Elgin Fire fights 10-hour hay barn blaze
CTV
Central Elgin volunteer fire fighters pulled an 'all-nighter' to battle a hay barn fire on Southdale Line just a few hundred metres outside the city limits of St. Thomas, Ont.
Central Elgin volunteer firefighters pulled an “all-nighter” to battle a hay barn fire on Southdale Line just a few hundred metres outside the city limits of St. Thomas, Ont.
A barn belonging to farmer and Central Elgin Coun. Norm Watson went up in flames around 11 p.m. Sunday night.
“We have fuel tanks in front, and the shop and the back of the building was fully involved,” said Murray Decorte, Yarmouth district chief of the Central Elgin Fire Department.
Decorte spoke to CTV News London on scene within an hour of the hay igniting.
“There was a bunch of machinery around and we needed to get that all that out of the way and moved, and the farmer was able to get that all out of the way and moved,” said Decorte. “We were able to hit them with water and got that all calmed down, so that isn’t a worry. It’s just a matter of getting the hay put out on the fire backside and the machinery inside.”
Six tanker trucks were shuttling water from just one kilometre away on Centennial Ave.
“The majority of them pulled an all-nighter and we had a number of people that left between five and seven in the morning because they had to go to work,” said Ray Ormerod, Central Elgin fire chief.
