A fire that destroyed a barn and several pieces of farm machinery that it housed on a Spring Township dairy farm was sparked by embers from a wood-fired boiler outside the structure, the township fire marshal said Tuesday.
The three-alarm blaze, which caused at least $550,000 in damage, was ruled an accidental fire, Fire Marshal Troy Hatt said.
Crews from Spring Township Fire Rescue Services and mutual aid companies from Berks and northern Lancaster County were dispatched just before 10:30 a.m. Monday for a barn fire at 137 Goose Lane. The farm is located between Sage Drive and Chapel Hill Road, about 1 mile west of the Route 222 Gouglersville interchange in the southern section of the township.
A second alarm was struck immediately, and fire commanders eventually struck a third alarm due to the need for additional tanker trucks to haul water to the wind-whipped fire.
Firefighters work at the fill site outside Shiloh Hills Elementary School, where a hydrant is located, during a barn fire on Goose Lane in Spring Township. (STEVEN HENSHAW – READING EAGLE)
Tankers were filled at a hydrant in front of nearby Shiloh Hill Elementary School.
Hatt said the 1½-story building that burned down was about 40 feet by 70 feet and used for maintenance and storage. Also rendered a total loss were all of its contents, including two tractors and a hay baler.
The outdoor boiler supplied hot water to the building and heated a portion of it, the fire marshal said. The embers may have escaped the chimney or when the boiler was restocked that morning.
In any case, the embers landed on dry material, causing a fire that was pushed toward the building by strong winds.
Firefighters managed to keep the fire from spreading to the farmhouse, the main barn and the milking parlor. Fortunately, the wind was blowing away from those buildings, the fire marshal said.
No livestock needed to be relocated.
No one was injured.
Firefighters remained at the scene for about five hours. It was the second time in slightly more than three days the Spring Township fire department spent the better part of a day battling a barn fire.
On Friday night, Spring Fire Rescue assisted Robesonia Fire Company on a blaze on a farm in Heidelberg Township. Spring crews were at that scene for about six hours.
