SHELDON, Vt. (WCAX) – A devastating fire happened around 9:30 Saturday morning at Kane’s Scenic River Farms, LLC.
“It was a really tough day,” Kane’s Scenic River Farms, LLC co-owner Ashley Swainbank said.
Fire officials rushed to East Sheldon Road Saturday – for a large 400 foot barn that was fully engulfed when they arrived.
Swainbank says 415 animals were saved but not of them made it out, “I think we lost around 20 small animals, the main barn we got everything cleared, had the door shut. There were a few chickens that didn’t make it.”
She and her husband were not home at the time, but when she got there she rushed to action.
“Get the animals out of the barn, get the animals out of the barn,” Swainbank described.
Neighbor Conner Kane says when he woke up that morning, he ran out to go help.
“A little bit nervous and it was pretty scary because cows were running everywhere everything was hectic and just terrible,” Kane said.
Heartbreaking in the moment, but Swainbank says she feels hopeful, ”It’s a lot of work to do what we do everyday and then something like this happens and you just… we’ll be okay but it’s tragic and it’s hard and it breaks my heart. I don’t know what else to say than it breaks my heart.”
And she is looking forward to rebuilding.
“The silver lining is this wasn’t perfectly set up for us, now we can make it be what we want; but I didn’t want it to be like this,” Swainbank said.
Another neighbor says Kane’s Scenic River Farms meant a lot to the community.
“The initial part of the barn that was there is really a landmark. It bought a lot of memories, to a lot of neighboring people and the residents, it’s just extremely sad to look over and not see it anymore,” Katie Morits said.
Swainbank says they still don’t know what caused the fire, but she’s grateful to those helped.
“I can’t thank the people that showed up enough. There was so many hands here, it was incredible how many people came at such short notice. All of a sudden 100-200 people were here, I don’t know there was a lot of people.”