No injuries were reported after a large fire tore through a multi-building barn in Delaware, just outside London, on Friday causing around $1 million in damages.
Middlesex Centre Fire, Strathroy-Caradoc Fire, and provincial police responded to the blaze at a barn at the rear of 2475 Gideon Dr., also known as Belvoir Estate, around 8 p.m., Middlesex OPP said.
At the scene, crews were met with heavy smoke and fire on the first and second floors of a century-old barn and in adjoining barns, officials from Middlesex Centre Fire said Saturday. Crews from Delaware and Coldstream fire stations responded to the scene and were assisted by members of Arva, and Ilderton stations, and by members of Strathroy-Caradoc’s Mount Brydges station.
“As a result, fire services were able to contain the fire to the affected barns and save several outbuildings, sheds, and a travel trailer in close proximity to the fire,” fire officials said.
No humans or animals were in the structure at the time of the fire, which was still burning past 9 p.m. All that was inside, police and fire officals said, were hay bales and some farm equipment.
The blaze destroyed the barn, police said, adding no other structures on the sprawling 300-acre property were damaged.
The cause of the blaze is being investigated, and the Ontario Fire Marshal’s Office is not attending the scene, said Mark Rennison, district fire chief for Middlesex Centre Fire.
Damage from the fire has been pegged at $1 million, he said.
“Middlesex Centre’s Fire Service continues to encourage farm owners and workers to become more fire safe by creating evacuation plans for buildings containing animals, having employees trained in fire safety and proper building and machine maintenance,” said a statement from Middlesex Centre Fire.