Fire damaged an historic barn near the intersection on Airport Road, between 49th and 50th avenues, adding to an already busy day for Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District.
SHFAD reported that its personnel ran 15 calls for emergency service during a 14-hour period on one shift.
The barn fire call, to 4989 Airport, came at 4:33 p.m.
According to SHFAD, crews arrived to find the small barn in a field with the roof on fire and residents attempting to spray water onto the roof with a hose. The primary residence was approximately 100 feet away and in the path of a stiff downwind of the burning barn.
The first arriving unit, a command brush rig, was able to use its onboard water to keep the flames at bay as an engine connected to the the last water hydrant on the east end of Airport, and a full crew went to work to knock down the fire.
Working both interior and exterior operations simultaneously, the engine company was able to extinguish the fire quickly and save as much of the contents of the barn as possible while preventing fire spread to the surrounding area.
The 100-year-old barn was in good condition and the majority of the damage was contained to the roof, with minor damage to the interior as the roof had begun to fall in.
According to SHFAD, the fire most likely started from a cast ember from a burn pile upwind, approximately 75 feet away. The afternoon winds had picked up and the roof construction was cedar shake, with years of moss growth that had dried with the past week of warm weather and steady winds.
Sweet Home police assisted with traffic control during the operation, as the hydrant supply line ran across Airport Road at the bottom of 50th Ave.
In anticipation of the Memorial Day Weekend, Sweet Home Fire had upstaffed by adding a brush engine crew to the daily roster. This, “as well as the luck of having no other calls at the time,” added to the success of a quick response and extinguishment for crews, SHFAD said in a news release.
According to a previous owner of the property, the Gilliland family once used the building as a toll house for travelers on the Santiam Wagon Trail. A hotel, which was torn down in the early 1900s, once stood on the site as well.
Only hours later Sweet Home had all ambulances on calls for service, a brush engine enroute to a fire in Cascadia, and an Albany medic unit responding to another call in the Sweet Home district as Lebanon Fire was also out of units running multiple calls.
SHFAD is cautioning the community to be “extra careful and pay close attention to any burning materials, as crews may be stretched thin, responding to all emergencies.”