Dairy barn destroyed by fire near Middletown

    A dairy barn at Emerson Farm on Jamison Corner Road caught fire on Monday at 1:30 p.m., causing what the Delaware State Fire Marshall’s Office estimates to be more than $1 million in damages. The farm workers and firefighters managed to get all of the people and cattle out safely.
    Volunteer Hose Company of Middletown Fire Chief Frank Bailey said the barn burned when a straw elevator in the dairy barn caught fire and the straw around it ignited.
    “Our best guess is a spark from the machinery probably caused it,” Bailey said.
    The call went out to the Middletown station at 1:30 p.m. Bailey said when they arrived the 200-foot by 300-foot barn was completely engulfed in flames.
    “Before they could even get to a fire extinguisher it was just too far gone,” Bailey said. “It moved very, very rapidly.”
    Robbie Emerson said he was working at the farm when the fire broke out.
    “It took us a little while to get the cows out because they tried to run back into the barn, but we got them,” he said. “All of the cows and calves are fine.”
    Cheryl Vest, who raises cattle with the Emersons at her farm Emervest Jersey in Clayton, said the cattle had to be corralled, pushed away and blocked from the burning barn.
    “It’s not a quick escape,” she said.  
    Bailey said he was impressed by the job the farm workers did saving the cattle near the fire. There are about 300 cows at Emerson Farm, 160 of which are dairy cows.
    “The farm workers did an outstanding job of getting the cattle out of the way,” Bailey said.
    Bailey said the firefighters worked on extinguishing the barn fire and preventing it from spreading, as the nearby house, several other barns and farm equipment were in danger of being burned.
    “We kept everything else from burning really badly,” he said.
    Many fire companies came to help either extinguish the fire or assist the other companies.
    Bailey said those who helped included the Odessa Fire Company, Townsend Fire Company, Port Penn Volunteer Fire Company, Delaware City Fire Company No. 1, Christiana Fire Company, Citizens’ Hose Company No. 1 of Smyrna, Clayton Fire Company No. 1, Volunteer Fire Company No. 1 of Chesapeake City, Md., Community Volunteer Fire Company of Millington, Md., Galena Volunteer Fire Company of Galena, Md., Aetna Hose, Hook & Ladder Co. of Newark and Wilmington Manor Volunteer Fire Company. More companies covered others’ fire stations while they were on the scene.
    Also assisting at the scene were the American Legion Ambulance of Smyrna and New Castle County Emergency Medical Services. The Delaware Department of Transportation provided traffic control.
    The Volunteer Hose Company of Middletown alone had 48 firefighters on scene and seven pieces of equipment. About 38,000 gallons of water were needed to put out the fire. The firefighters used large tankers as well as water pumped from a small stream near Jamison Corner Road.
    Bailey said most of the fire had been put out by 3 p.m. and it was declared under control at 3:53 p.m. Middletown firefighters returned to their station at 7:30 p.m.
    Bailey said the dairy barn was completely destroyed and some farm equipment and barns received burn damage.
    Emerson said two of the plastic hutches where calves are kept caught fire and melted to the ground.
    He said his family, who owns the farm, and volunteers spent Tuesday cleaning up the wreckage.
    “The plan right now is to tear down and rebuild from scratch, from somewhere I guess,” Emerson said. “We’re greatly appreciative of everybody.”
    Vest said the dairy parlor was remodeled a few years ago.
    “They put their blood, sweat and tears into the place,” she said. “The new technology they have to purchase, the price is going to be outrageous. It wouldn’t take long to put in a freestanding building, but the parlor is going to take the most time to put back in.”
    She said they’ll need new milking units, pipelines, vacuum pumps, equipment to measure the milk and flow, lots of electric and more.
    Emerson said he estimated 250 to 300 people in the agricultural community came to the farm Monday to help transport cattle to other dairy farms.
    Kenny Getty of the Odessa Fire Company said he was impressed by the number of people who came to help.
    “I’ve never seen that kind of response from the farming community before,” he said. “On Monday there were people from Maryland, Pennsylvania and all over. It was unbelievable.”
    Pam Derickson of Middletown was one of many who dropped what she was doing to drive to Emerson Farm and helped haul cattle.
    “They have to be milked elsewhere because if milk sits in the udder, it goes bad and cows can get mastitis. They can die,” she said.
    Mastitis is the inflammation of the parenchyma of the mammary gland.
    “[The Emersons] had a lot of help from a lot of people,” Vest said. “They’ve got cows spread out across a bunch of different places in Maryland and Delaware. You’ve got to have the milking facilities in order to milk.
    “It took less than three hours to haul 160 cows, which is phenomenal,” Vest said. “Everyone was there to load cattle, feed them, commiserate and provide support. I’ve never had to call farmers more than once to come eat, but [Monday] night it was hard to get them to stop working and come inside.”