Dozens of animals die in fire

By Ryan Hutton and Gillian Jones, North Adams Transcript
Posted: 12/09/2008 10:07:07 AM EST





Tuesday, December 9
CHESHIRE -- A three alarm fire fueled by raging winds claimed the live of dozens of animals, destroyed a barn and severely damaged two others early Monday morning on Wells Road.
The former Toporowski Dairy Farm at 1141 Wells Road burst into flames sometime around 2 a.m. and was soon fully engulfed. The Cheshire Fire Department got the call at 2:11 a.m. and by the time Fire Chief Tom Francesconi arrived on the scene two minutes later, he said the main barn was already almost gone.

"There were three buildings involved. A main wooden barn structure, a metal barn and a milk house," he said. "The fire appeared to have originated in the main barn and by the time I got there it was already 75 percent burnt. It was going pretty good.

"The metal barn and the milk house were involved but on the inside, we managed to save both of those. There's massive interior damage but they're still standing."

There is also a two-story home on the property that escaped major damage, but Francesconi said that by the time he arrived the siding was already buckling from the heat.

Terry Drain said she was in the process of renovating the farm to live there, although she was not on the property at the time of the blaze. She said her father had actually grown up on the farm and it holds much sentimental value to her family.

"I always wanted to live here and I wanted to keep the original character," Drain said.




Fire departments from Cheshire, Adams and Savoy had to battle not only the fire, but also the elements, as winds picked up and the mercury fell.
"The weather conditions were horrible," Francesconi said. "The wind was blowing probably 40 to 50 miles per hour right across where we needed to set up because there were just open fields nearby. The wind was just ripping right through there and with the wind chill we were probably looking at 20 degrees below zero."

The sub-zero temperatures also fouled the fire fighter's equipment, making getting the fire under control much more difficult.

"We ran into trouble with our pumps freezing, it was so cold," Francesconi said. "Some of our nozzles even froze, the pumps froze, not to mention the fire fighters that were covered from head to toe in ice."

The fire was extinguished by 6:05 a.m. and the cause is still under investigation by Francesconi and state Fire Marshall David Percy.

The barn was full of animals at the time of the fire, but none of them escaped. In all, three chickens, a rooster and 16 goats were killed.

"It's so devastating," Drain said. "I was hoping the animals got out, but none of them did."

In addition to the animals that perished, a tractor valued at $30,000, a log splitter, antiques and kayaks were also lost in the blaze.

Because there was no one living on the property, it was not insured.

"There are no words for what happened," Drain said.