Firefighters Keep Fire Contained To BarnFlames of a barn fire Friday afternoon on County Farm Road were so big and the smoke so thick they could be seen from at least a half mile away.
Claypool Fire Department Chief Rick Hurley said the call came in between 1:30 and 2 p.m. He said the barn fire had equipment in it, but no animals.
“We don’t know how it started yet. Probably won’t for a while,” Hurley said.
The address is 4494 S. County Farm Road, Warsaw, and is owned by Vana Dell Farms Inc.
By about 2:20 p.m. Friday, the firefighters were protecting exposures and trying to keep the fire segregated to the main building. Hurley said they stopped the fire from spreading to another building, though a couple of posts nearby caught fire.
“So right now, all we are doing is keeping it contained and protecting exposures,” he said.
There was a 500-gallon fuel tank next to the barn, but Hurley said it was fortunately empty. The only fuel, they were advised, was in the equipment.
Had there been fuel in the tank next to the barn, Hurley said that would have changed everything.
“We would have put it out. We could fight it. If it would have went off, we would have just had to deal with the damage. It just makes our scene bigger. A bigger perimeter,” Hurley stated.
Along with Claypool, also at the scene were Winona Lake Fire Department, Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory and Silver Lake Fire Department; Claypool Town Marshall Ben Sanders, Lutheran EMS and Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office. Sanders was first on the scene after being dispatched.
