A fire in Topping, southeast of Milverton, is still under investigation.
4,300 large hay bales helped fuel the fire in a building that was on an agricultural property.
Firefighters from Milverton and Shakespeare responded to the original call Thursday around 10 p.m. and had support from Sebringville.
According to officials there were no injuries suffered by any people or animals but the cause has yet to be confirmed while the damage estimate is expected to be over the $1 million mark.
Fire crews were able to suppress the fire, and as of Saturday around 10 a.m., the scene had been released to the owner who was to monitor the property for 24 hours, similar to a controlled burn.
James Marshall is the Fire Prevention Officer.
He says there were some advantages that the fire crews had in fighting the blaze.
"There was on-site water for the fire departments to use for suppression which saved firefighters from having to travel back and forth collecting water from various water supplies around the community," said Marshall. "We are also lucky with some of our equipment we operate, nozzles from the truck, and there are deck guns that we can operate from inside the truck."
One of the biggest challenges for firefighters responding was the congestion created by bystanders.
"It drew a lot of attention as people wanted to gawk at the fire. And we had great difficulties trying to negotiate our trucks through the roadways even to get to the fire," said Marshall. "There were people sitting on their hoods, stopped in the middle of the roadway, just watching the fire."
Your @PEFD_WPFD are still on scene of a large agricultural structure fire. Barn was fully involved when the 10pm call came in. It's still hot enough to create these smoke tornados.#noinjuries#noanimals#itsbeenalongnight@VistaRadioCasey @weathernetwork @OntarioTornado pic.twitter.com/jeOAL7fTuD
— PEFD WPFD (@PEFD_WPFD) August 20, 2021
Your @PEFD_WPFD is still on scene of a large barn fire that we responded to last night at 10pm. It is very hot out here for crews today, 4500 large bales burning are not helping. Crews working all day to protect surrounding outbuildings willed with more bales. pic.twitter.com/vG9HUYKEtT
— PEFD WPFD (@PEFD_WPFD) August 20, 2021
