Large fire destroys cattle barn near Sandford
Roger Varley, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
A barn fire that lit up the night sky for several kilometres around was, thanks to several fire departments and a west wind that cooperated, quickly contained last Thursday evening.
Excavators were on site at Musthaven Farms early Friday morning to begin cleaning up debris from the fire. Photo by John Cavers
Sometime between 9 and 9:30 p.m., fire broke out at Musthaven Farms, Chris Mustard's farm north of Sandford. Firefighters from Uxbridge, Brock and Scugog responded to the call. Brock's assistance was in the form of a tanker truck, and Scugog sent in two tankers and a crew. Some Brock Fire crew also remained at the Uxbridge fire hall for additional coverage in case any other emergency calls came in.
Uxbridge Fire Chief Mike MacDonald said the fire was deemed under control by around 12:30 a.m., but crews remained on scene until 4:15 a.m. to make sure there were no flare-ups. The chief, who said the cause of the fire is unknown at the moment, offered that it was the biggest fire in Uxbridge in years.
Although the barn was mostly destroyed, the nearby family home was not damaged, nor were several other outbuildings, and MacDonald said another "critical" building was saved.
Mustard did say that, of about 170 head of cattle, 26 were lost to the fire, and that the majority of those were calves.
While the fire was being managed, several area farmers arrived with cattle trailers to help move the dairy cattle that had been removed from the barn. On Friday morning, one local farmer arrived with bottles of milk to feed the calves who were still on site. More trailers also arrived on Friday morning, and by 9 a.m., Mustard said his herd had entirely been moved. The cattle are now housed among five local dairy farms until he can bring them back.
"I couldn't hope to repay what friends and neighbours did for me," he said.
Members of the farming community also had two large excavators on site by 7 a.m. Friday morning to begin cleaning up.
Mustard said the family has been on the farm since the 1880s. He said his young daughter was the first to notice the fire, but that it had been well under way for around 10 minutes.
MacDonald said that, apart from the livestock, there were no injuries resulting from the fire.