About 30 cows perished in a large barn fire at a Thorold dairy farm Saturday night.
Thorold firefighters were able to prevent the fire from spreading to other structures on the property, including another barn containing 140 cattle.
“Fire crews did an excellent job containing it to the one barn to make sure that the major dairy barn never got affected,” said Thorold fire Chief Terry Dixon Sunday.
“There are other surrounding buildings as well, nothing else was damaged. Nobody was hurt.”
Thorold firefighters were called to 2010 Beaverdams Rd., near Kottmeier Rd. at about 10 p.m. Saturday and were on scene until 4 a.m. Sunday.
Dixon said the barn was destroyed and contained the livestock, straw and a tractor and mixer.
In addition to about 30 cows that perished, there were six others that managed to break out of the barn, he said. Their conditions are being assessed.
The fire department is estimating damage between $400,000 and $500,000.
Crews were going back to the scene Sunday to check for hotspots and remove tin to ensure there was nothing smouldering.
Dixon said extinguishing the fire took time because of the amount of straw which had to be pulled out and soaked down.
Three Thorold fire stations responded and were assisted by Pelham Tanker 1 and Niagara Falls Tanker 6.
“It was a great job done by all the fire crews, especially for containing the fire the way we did,” Dixon said.
“It’s always unfortunate when you’re livestock gets in trouble like that. These things do happen in the rural area.”
Source: Outline
