The owners of a well-known potato farm near Shelburne are planning to rebuild, despite suffering millions of dollars in damage to a fire.
The fire broke out at around 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday at Tupling Farms Produce, which is located on Mulmur-Melancthon Townline.
“When we arrived the fire was already through the roof of the building,” says Mulmur-Melancthon fire chief Jim Clayton.
Firefighters from four different departments responded to the fire and took several hours to extinguish the flames.
The biggest challenge was the lack of water. There are no hydrants near the property, meaning water had to be trucked in from a pond more than three kilometres away.
“Getting those tankers moving so they are not overlapping can be a big challenge and keeping the water on the building so we can extinguish it is the biggest task that we have.”
Damage is estimated at more than $3 million. That number could change because of the vast amount of equipment that was inside the building.
No one was injured and the cause isn’t considered suspicious. The Ontario Fire Marshal’s Office has been contacted, but isn’t expected to attend.
Owner Andrew Tupling says despite the devastation, five buildings were unscathed by the fire.
“We are very lucky the wind was in the proper direction blowing away from the storage facilities and our main loss today was the packaging operation.”
“It's going to be painful in the short term, but in the long term, we are going to rebuild because we are committed to what we do.”
Heavy equipment has been brought in to dig through what's left of the building and to get access to any hot spots.
Officials will be keeping an eye out for any flare-ups overnight.
