Firefighters will likely never know the cause of a blaze that consumed a Gilbert Corners Road, Sharon home Friday in less than an hour.
But with 35-45mph winds and temperatures below zero, Sharon Springs Fire Chief Greg Baxter said the home at the Jim and Betty Marshall farm never stood a chance.
“There couldn’t have been any worse conditions and the fire had such a head start,” Chief Baxter said. “We’re just glad it didn’t happen in the middle of the night.”
The blaze was called in at 2:20pm by a passing Schoharie County DPW crew as a fully involved structure fire, said Chief Baxter; he immediately called in about 50 volunteers, equipment and tankers from the Sharon, Cobleskill, Ames, and Carlisle Fire Departments.
By the time he got to the scene from Schoharie at 2:37, the walls of the wood-structure home were falling in on themselves.
“It was so far gone, we couldn’t make an interior attack so we tried to fight it from the back of the house. But once the windows started blowing out, that fire just moved,” Chief Baxter said.
No one was in the house at the time of the fire; Mr. Marshall was in the nearby barn and didn’t know his home was on fire till he got a phone call and looked out to see flames coming from every window.
With the wind gusting out of the west, there was never any danger that the flames would spread to the barn, which is located on the north side property, Chief Baxter said.
Chief Baxter said the cause of the fire is being listed as undetermined and he doesn’t expect to come up with a cause.
“There’s just nothing left. The wind and temperatures really hampered our efforts. The trucks started freezing up and I started worrying about the guys getting frostbitten,” he added.