Digby County fire departments assist with Annapolis County blaze
A barn and two outbuildings destroyed in April 25 fire
An April 25 blaze that destroyed a barn and two outbuildings on Guinea Road in Annapolis County had firefighters from Bear River, Smiths Cove, Digby, Annapolis Royal and Lawrencetown fire departments responding.
Digby Department of Natural Resources (DNR) personnel also played an important role in extinguishing the fire.
Bear River deputy chief Dave McCormick says the barn fire spread into the woods and burned about six acres of land on an elevated slope. Lawrencetown firefighters and Digby DNR forces fought that blaze while the other departments worked at dousing the barn fire.
“The property owner wasn’t very helpful at the beginning of the fire,” said McCormick. “He didn’t want us to put any of it out, just to let it burn and clean up all the rubbish, because he didn’t have any insurance,” he said.
“We explained to him that we have to put out the fire. It was a no-burn day.”
McCormick says it was caused, from what they were told, by the homeowner welding inside.
“We weren’t sure that’s what actually caused the fire. Where he had no insurance, they ( officials) didn’t see any purpose in investigating because there would be no claims filed.”
A house on the property that was located downwind of the fire was saved.
The call originally came in at 1:15 p.m. as a woods fire and was reported by a DNR employee who saw the black smoke from Smiths Cove.
Sparks from the fire landed on the other side of the Guinea Road and lit that side ablaze, heading up the road.
McCormick says the woods fire was more of a challenge for DNR because it was “quite an elevated bank” that the fire had jumped across to. There were high-tension lines that ran through that area and firefighters were concerned about the power lines.
Firefighters returned to their stations around 6:30 p.m.
“People need to pay attention to the burning regulations that are placed by DNR,” said McCormick.