AR-News: (US ME) Animals die in New Portland barn fire

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

http://www.centralmaine.com/news/local/475085.shtml 


NEW PORTLAND -- Farm animals were killed Friday night when fire struck a 
makeshift barn on the Middle Road. 
Assistant Fire Chief Kendall Knowles said that the property owners, Curtis 
Dustin and his wife, were unharmed. The Dustins live in a home separated from 
the barn by approximately 200 feet, Knowles said. 
Knowles said the Dustins lost a pig, 12 piglets, two sheep, a dog and one or 
two cows in the fire. 
Other cows survived because they were in a separate pen, Knowles said. 
"He was understandably upset, so I didn't pry a lot about how many animals he 
lost," Knowles said. 
The Dustins kept a heat lamp in the barn to keep the piglets warm, and it 
probably fell over and started the blaze, Knowles said. 
Firefighters from New Portland, Kingfield and Highland/Lexington answered the 
call at 8 p.m. 
"It was totally involved," Knowles said. "When he opened the door, the flames 
came through. He couldn't get any of the animals out. The building was down 
in 20 minutes." 
The flames did not touch the house, Knowles said. 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.envirolink.org/pipermail/ar-news/attachments/20040308/a9d73191/attachment.html