By Rob Scott
MIFFLINBURG — Firefighters in the Mifflinburg Hose Company were exhausted Sunday night after battling two fires in a 12-hour period.
The first started in a dairy barn at 2 Hazel St., just west of Hartleton, around 2 a.m.
“It was actually burning quite a while before we got there,” said Deputy Fire Chief Steve Walter, “because the roof had already caved in by the time we got there.”
A passing motorist on Route 45 called it in, Walter said.
The owners, Menno and Elaine Zimmerman, didn’t know the barn was on fire until someone woke them up.
The chief said the barn was fully engulfed in flames by the time firefighters arrived. They were unable to save the structure, but did save an adjacent milk house.
“We tried very diligently to save that, and we were successful,” said Walter.
The owners got some of the cattle out of the barn before it burned down, but not all, the deputy chief said.
Mr. Zimmerman said the fire appeared to have started on the top floor of the barn, but he had no idea what might have caused it. He said there was electricity running into the structure, but couldn’t say whether that was the cause.
Walter could not pinpoint the cause either.
Firefighters spent four hours battling the blaze and were able to get just a few hours rest before they were called to a second fire at around 1:30 p.m. at 131 Chestnut St., Mifflinburg, two blocks from the station.
Walter said the afternoon fire started when the owner of the building, a woman whose name was not available Sunday, was using a torch to install pipes in the basement.
The blaze quickly spread through the entire house because of its “balloon structure” — meaning there are no stoppages between floors to prevent the spread of a fire — and it took firefighters about three hours to get it under control, he said.
“I don’t know if I would call it a total loss, but there was heavy damage throughout the house,” Walter said.
“We’ve got a lot of whooped firefighters right now, on very little sleep,” said Walter. “We’re hoping and praying things calm down.”
The building contained three apartments, one of which the owner lived in. The deputy chief did not know whether the other apartments were occupied.
There were no injuries at either fire, although Walter said there was “a lot of slipping and falling” due to the icy conditions.
“It’s hard on equipment and manpower when you’ve got the temperatures we’ve had, and it was snowing on and off,” he said.
Walter and Mifflinburg Chief John Heiges praised the members of the fire company for turning out in large numbers for both fires — 37 at the first, 44 at the second.
Heiges was especially impressed at the effort his crew put in at the Chestnut Street blaze.
“If these guys would have gave up today and got tired, just for five minutes, the house would have burned down,” Heiges said.
New Berlin, William Cameron, White Deer Township, Milton and Penns Creek fire companies also responded to the fires.
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