GORHAM, Maine — Crews spent much of the day Wednesday clearing debris at Flaggy Meadow Farm in Gorham, after an overnight fire that destroyed the farm's dairy barn.
"It's old and it went up quick," Gorham Fire Chief Ken Fickett said. "With the initial pictures from the police department, as well as some of the fire trucks that showed up with cameras on board, it was already well involved when we got here."
According to Chief Fickett, four cows were killed in the fire. Dozens of others however were rescued and kept safe from the blaze.
"Probably about an hour into the fire we realized there were still some live cows inside," Fickett said. "So we stopped all deck gun operations and went in and got the cows out. And there were, I believe, five or six cows that they rescued out of there that were still alive. And basically they were in basement and the hay was on fire on the first floor."
Fickett says while the barn is considered a total loss, other buildings on the property were saved, and only some sustained additional damage.
One firefighter was evaluated for heat exhaustion, according to Fickett, but no other injuries to humans were reported.
"When I pulled in my driveway, the whole thing went up in flames in a split second," Cameron Dearborn said.
Dearborn lives in a home right next to the dairy barn, and say he worked at Flaggy Meadow Farm for eight years. Dearborn says he and others at the farm worked quickly to keep the animals safe. He says many of the cows were already outside of the barn in the pasture.
"Yeah I thought there would be a lot more, but luckily, they milked them before the fire so they were all turned out," Dearborn said.
The family that owns the farm has launched a GoFundMe to help rebuild following the blaze.
According to the GoFundMe, Flaggy Meadow Farm has been run by the Young family for more than 100 years.
Chief Fickett says the State Fire Marshal's Office will be returning to the farm tomorrow to complete its investigation into what started the fire.
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