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RAUCHTOWN – An accidental fire late Saturday afternoon damaged an Amish family’s tobacco-drying barn on Davidson Road, about a mile north of here, in Crawford Township, according to Nippenose Valley Fire Chief Dean Miller.
“The interior of the barn was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived on the scene about 4:40 p.m.,” Miller said.
The barn had been stacked practically from floor-to-ceiling with tobacco on drying racks, Miller explained, adding that all that tobacco was consumed by the fire.
No one was injured and no livestock was involved. The fire at the Jacob Stoltzfus farm was knocked down in about 20 minutes, Miller said.
“The fire burnt off the back on the barn, but the structure is completely standing,” he said, adding that firefighters made an aggressive interior attack.
Water was drafted from a stream at Ravensburg State Park and then shuttled to the scene via fire department tankers.
Damage to the barn and the loss of the tobacco was estimated at $60,000, Miller said.
Using a drying device, the Stoltzfus family was “trying to speed up the process” of drying out tobacco that had been saturated by the recent heavy rains, the fire chief said.
While trying to remove moisture from the tobacco, bags of charcoal in the barn caught fire, Miller explained.
Besides Nippenose Valley, volunteer firefighters from Antes Fort, Jersey Shore, Woodward Township, Nisbet, DuBoistown and several Clinton County departments responded.