No cause has been determined yet for an early morning fire in Esperance Saturday that destroyed a Route 20 barn.
Neighbor Gary Ovitt spotted the fire at the James Palmiter property at about 9:30am and called 911.
By the time the Esperance Fire Department arrived just a few minutes later, the large barn, located approximately 500 feet west of Ragan Road on Route 20, was fully engulfed, Schoharie County Fire Coordinator Matt Brisley said, and the flames had begun to spread to a smaller barn.
Mutual aid was called in from Central Bridge, Carlisle, Schoharie, and Burtonsville with Middleburgh and Cobleskill on stand-by.
With the temperature only about 15 degrees and the wind strong, the Esperance Volunteer Fire Department was on scene to monitor firefighters as they rotated out for rehab and to warm up, and the EFD auxiliary provided refreshments to the approximately 40 firefighters on the scene.
Water was trucked by tankers, initially from the Ovitt’s pond on Ragan Road and then from a pond in the Village of Esperance, Mr. Brisley said.
EFD Chief Tim Deffer said the cause of the blaze has yet to be determined; crews were on the scene until about 2:30pm.
Schoharie County Sheriff’s deputies assisted at the scene and the county DPW kept the road salted and sanded.
Route 20 was closed between Esperance and Sloansville during the fire.
The barn was used mostly for storage, but also housed a horse, who was not injured in the fire.