Forty firefighters respond from five towns

By Avice Meehan

Adair Mali often sleeps with earplugs but dispensed with them on the night of Aug. 18, tired after a night at Tanglewood with her husband, Antonio Guindon, and another couple. Thank goodness she did. At about 4:20 a.m. Mali awoke to a “loud crackling noise” and at first thought a herd of baby goats had escaped yet again. Then, she saw the “orange light in the sky.”

The nearly 200-year-old pole barn, located a mere 34 feet from their Winchester Road farmhouse, was up in flames. She awakened Guindon (a sound sleeper) and called 911 before the couple rushed out of the house on Winchester Road to see what could be saved. The answer was not much: both of their cars and the family dog were moved away from the heat for safety. The fractious goats were safely in their outdoor pen.

First Assistant Fire Chief Matt Ludwig said the Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department was dispatched at 4:27 a.m. with mutual aid support from the Drakeville, Winsted, Winchester Center and North Canaan departments. In all, 40 firefighters responded to the scene, along with the Norfolk Lions Club Ambulance. Ludwig served as incident commander and Second Assistant Fire Chief Steven Hutchins oversaw crews fighting the fire. Chief Brian Hutchins was away on vacation.

Given the remote location, Norfolk Engine 90 and its crew set up operations at Kelly Swamp, located at the intersection of Grantville and Winchester roads, to fill the tankers shuttling much-needed water to the site where it was stored in portable reservoirs. Ludwig reported that upwards of 40,000 gallons of water were needed to fight the blaze.

“The building was fully involved upon arrival with fire emitting from every door, window and through the roof,” Ludwig said, noting that the bulk of the fire was “knocked down” within 10 minutes and officially declared under control at 5:43 a.m. That being said, crews wetted down the 1892 house for safety. Leaves and needles on nearby trees, turned brown with heat, told their own story. Ludwig said the Norfolk department left Winchester Road shortly after 9 a.m. but were called back roughly an hour later to extinguish fire smoldering in the debris pile.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation by Fire Marshal Keith Byrne, assisted by Deputy Fire Marshal John DeShazo. Byrne has visited the site several times and said an investigation of a fire of this magnitude could take more than 40 hours, noting that the property owners have been helpful in sharing historical photos and that others have shared both photographs and video. “We follow the scientific method by searching 360 degrees around all sides of the structure looking for the least damaged to the most fire-damaged area,” Byrne said, adding that the investigation would extend inside the barn as conditions permit.

The original dairy barn was expanded to house the operations of Lost Ruby Farm, the justly popular line of fresh and aged goat cheese developed by Guidon and Mali. In 2023, they sold the business to Kristie Laverdiere who farms under the name Lavender Hills Farm LLC in Canaan. The baby goats, who would have been housed in the barn but for their mischievous behavior, belong to her. “We spent a lot of time in that barn,” said Guindon. “It’s easy to say that the house is safe, but the barn was the heart and soul of my life for 15 years. I spent 70 to 80 hours a week in that barn.” Although the heavily insulated cheese room and cave survived the worst of the fire, First Selectman Henry Tirrell authorized the use of the town’s excavator to pull it down so firefighters could fully extinguish the fire.

The barn housed Guindon’s truck and tractor and was about to become home to 75 chicks, which are now in the care of one of Mali’s colleagues on the ambulance squad. It also housed their considerable crop of onions and garlic, several bicycles and all 21 solar panels that powered the home’s water heater. They hope to retrieve a trellis and a wagon wheel, customarily outlined in white lights, but not much else.

Despite the ongoing shock and sense of dislocation caused by the fire, Guindon and Mali both expressed deep gratitude to members of the NVFD and the neighbors who have stepped in with meals and visits. They suggest that friends wanting to help Lost Ruby Farm consider contributing to Norfolk’s fire department or ambulance squad. “We put the farm on hold [for family] but we still have some sort of farmer left in us,” said Guindon. “This might force us to make a choice, to go back to [raising] turkeys, meat birds and layers. We were “stuck” with a dairy barn, but since we don’t need a dairy barn, what do we need?”