Four fire companies battle heat and smoke

By Rosanna Trestman

“It’s not something you run into too often,” confessed Norfolk’s Fire Chief, Daryl Byrne, referring to a hay truck fire on Saturday, September 8, that immobilized Route 44 for over four hours.

Jerald and Janet Cole, who live in New Haven and regularly visit Norfolk, were dangerously in the thick of the action. Mr. Cole contacted Norfolk Now with an eye witness report.

After leaving the Norfolk Historical Society, the Coles pulled onto Route 44 behind a flatbed truck hauling hay. “Do you smell smoke?” inquired Mrs. Cole. Rounding the bend before Botelle School, they noticed black smoke barreling out of cylindrical hay bales. Cole surmises that they were stacked too close to the smokestack.

Wearing respirators and air tanks, firefighters pull at the hay with hand tools. Photo by Ed Harvey.

“I honked and waved my hands out the window to get the driver’s attention, but it was not until he was just past the Botelle School that he suddenly pulled over to the right side of the road,” clarifies Cole. The bare-chested truck driver, [later identified as Duncan Wilber of Colebrook] “jumped up on the flatbed and started pushing bales of hay off the top to stem the fire. Shortly after the driver ran from the truck, a loud explosion occurred–one of the tires had blown out from the heat. Bright orange flames took off quickly after that. Some small brush fires also started off the side of the road.”

Chief Byrne arrived on the scene moments later and convinced Mr. Wilbur, who by then had a singed chest, to abandon the truck. Firefighters followed and had the fire contained within 5 minutes.

Hay fires are not unusual, except they typically occur in fields and barns. This particular situation posed a unique challenge for the firefighters. The target was an extremely hazardous unsecured load and the conditions that Saturday were particularly grueling. “It was unusually warm – 95 degrees,” Chief Byrne pointed out, “and a time-consuming attack.” Firefighters combated flames wearing 40 pounds of stifling turn-out gear and carrying 35  pound air packs to counter smoke inhalation.

The bales, which were no longer compact cylinders, were knocked off the truck with hand tools and later, a back loader. The crew dispersed the hay to prevent further smoldering. “As soon as you expose smoldering embers to fresh air, it causes a good puff of smoke,” Byrne explained. “Hay smoke is pretty toxic and can overwhelm you easily.” Eventually the turn-out suits became too hot and the oxygen too scarce to continue.

Every neighboring fire company was called in for backup. “We asked the Canaan company to act as standby for Norfolk, since all of our trucks were at the scene,” says Byrne. Requiring still more manpower, Colebrook, Winsted and Winchester fire companies took turns alternating with firefighters who were overheated, over-tired, and contending with traffic on Route 44 that needed to be diverted, making the area safe.

4½ hours later the State DOT loader arrived to scrape up the ashes and hay.

Photo, top, by Jerald Cole.