Lyons Township Fire Chief thanks those who battled dairy farm fire in Pewamo

Aug. 21--PEWAMO -- Talk about teamwork.

Usually when there is a structure fire, a few different fire departments will respond to the scene, and provide more than enough manpower to deal with the situation.

But when a barn at a local dairy farm went up in flames last week, creating huge flames that threatened other structures on the property, it required the type of coordinated firefighting effort rarely seen.

More than 100 firefighters from 20 local departments helped battle the blaze in the 3800 block of North Hubbardston Road, on the northeastern Ionia County border with Clinton County.

The fire started around 9 a.m. on Tuesday Aug. 14, and the last fire crews finally left the scene on Thursday around 3 p.m.

"It was definitely the biggest fire, and most extensive firefighting effort, I have been involved in," said Lyons Township Fire Chief Michael Yerge.

Yerge is sending out a special "thank you" to all the firefighters who worked hard and played a role in containing the blaze.

He saluted the Hubbardston, Fowler, Westphalia, Portland, Lyons-Muir, Carson City, Maple Rapids, Ionia, Ovid, DeWitt Area, DeWitt Township, Elsie, Ronald, Crystal, St. Johns, Berlin-Orange, Looking Glass, Bath and Perrinton fire departments for joining in the massive effort.

"I also want to thank Clinton Area Ambulance Service, Clinton County Emergency Medical Service Team, the Auxiliary of Pewamo and Hubbardston, the Ionia County Victim Advocate, and many other people and small businesses," Yerge said.

So many fire departments were involved because the 500-by-100-foot barn was situated in the middle of several other structures and feed bunkers, and was loaded with thousands of bales of straw and hay.

"We just couldn't let it burn," Yerge said. "It would have caused extension of the fire into those other buildings. There were livestock in two buildings right next to it. There was feed to the south and feed to the east of it.

"So we had to extinguish part of it, and tear down part of (the burning barn) to get it away from the livestock and those buildings. In order to do that, I had to have a large water supply and manpower to suppress it, and allow us to get it torn down."

After six or seven hours, the fire was under control. But crews were still on the scene until about 3 p.m. on Thursday, tearing down what was left of the barn with bulldozers, moving the hay and straw away, and making sure the fire didn't start up again.

Property owner Albert Steenblik told WILX-TV of Lansing that he suspected the fire was caused by a piece of equipment that malfunctioned inside the barn.

No injuries were reported, although one firefighter from Hubbardston was taken to a hospital for exhaustion, according to a Lansing State Journal report.

"That happened early on, before other departments arrived," Yerge said. "We were rotating firefighters every 30 minutes after that, because the fire was so hot."

Yerge said the danger to the firefighters was moderate, because they weren't asked to go into the fire itself. They were mostly spraying water into it, as they worked to keep the blaze contained to the single structure.

"The (other) buildings were about 40 feet away, so we kept the danger of it spreading down," said Yerge, who has been with the Lyons Fire Department in Pewamo for five years.

Yerge said an insurance agent would be better at providing a financial estimate of the damage, but he guessed it would costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not over a million, to rebuild the barn and replace its contents.

The farm is located just south of Colony Road between Pewamo and Hubbardston on the county line. Land across the street from Steenblik Dairy Inc. is in Ionia County.

___

(c)2018 Ionia Sentinel-Standard, Mich.

Visit Ionia Sentinel-Standard, Mich. at www.sentinel-standard.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.