Calloway County, Ky.–A large tobacco barn was destroyed by fire Sunday night in Calloway County. Thankfully, no injuries were reported and thanks to firefighters’ action, there was no damage to nearby buildings.
Just after 9:00pm, Calloway County Fire Rescue was dispatched to the 1700 block of Rob Mason Road near the Stella community for a report of a tobacco barn on fire. Our dispatchers also advised that the 911 caller said the barn was fully involved with flames coming through the roof. Upon arrival of our units, they found an approximately four acre tobacco barn on fire on the edge of an unharvested soybean field with a house and large shop nearby.
Due to the barn already being fully engulfed in flames and the limited supply of water available, firefighters went on a defensive attack to protect the surrounding structures and keep the fire contained to avoid it spreading to the soybean field. One of the pumpers drafted water from a nearby pond to supply a deck gun to protect the surrounding area and keep the fire under control while our second pumper supplied water to the hoselines for our firefighters around the barn keeping the field from igniting. CCFR provided fire protection until it was deemed safe to continue smoldering.
Unfortunately with tobacco barns, unless we get there within minutes of the fire starting, there’s usually very little we can save due to how quick these barns burn and the fact that the fires aren’t usually caught until flames are coming out of the roof, especially at night when you can’t see the color of the smoke like during the day. Thankfully there was no damage to the surrounding structures nor the field.
CCFR responded with two pumpers, five tankers, two support trucks and a command vehicle. We are grateful for the large turnout from our members, a lot of them being from our last recruit camp responding to their first structure fire. No injuries were reported from this incident.