Blaze deliberately set by Norfolk and North Canaan firefighters

By Bob Bumcrot
Flames lit the sky on the morning of January 15 as the old Blackberry Farm
barn was burned to the ground in a “live fire” exercise conducted by the fire departments of Norfolk and North Canaan. Additional firefighters came from Lakeville, Winsted and Riverton, some of them young trainees.

According to local historian Hartley Mead, the 60 by 100 foot structure located behind the Blackberry River Inn on Route 44 was “”the largest concrete barn in Litchfield County.” Erected in Norfolk just over the border from Canaan in 1920, it was often used to house livestock from Laurelbrook Farm, just up the road towards Canaan.

“Sometimes the cows got out, and it was very exciting,” recalls Anita Mathewson, whose white colonial  home is on a nearby hillside. The demolished structure is situated on property now owned by her daughter and son-in-law, Jill and William Vantine.

The barn began to collapse over 20 years ago and was deemed to be both unsightly and a safety hazard. Most of the firefighters who observed the blaze and helped contain it welcomed the light drizzle and unseasonably mild temperature. No so Norfolk Fire Marshall Daryl Byrne. “We wish it had been much colder,” he said. “This was a training exercise and it would have been instructive to show the younger people how to keep the hoses from freezing.”

Photo by Christopher Little.