MOUNT VERNON — Several baby goats were killed and a barn destroyed Thursday afternoon by a swift-moving fire at Romp & Stomp Acres Boer Goat Farm off Long Acres Road.

Mount Vernon Fire Chief Dana Dunn said nobody was hurt in the blaze, but eight baby goats were killed in the fire, which broke out around 3:30 p.m. in the barn near the home at 26 Long Acres Road.

The homeowners, Scott and Denise Williams, and the first arriving firefighters were able to save 35 adult and baby goats.

The Williamses and firefighters were treated at the scene for heat exhaustion but did not require hospitalization, Dunn said.

The fire also damaged a storage pen near the barn and spread to nearby woods, scorching the trunks of several trees before firefighters extinguished it.

A home roughly 60 feet from the barn wasn’t damaged.

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Scott Williams said his family has raised show goats for six years.

“They’re valued at anywhere from $300 to $5,000,” Williams said. He was unsure whether his insurance would cover the loss of the building or the animals.

Williams said he learned of the fire when Denise Williams called him.

“My wife came home from getting my daughter off the bus, and she called me and said the garage was on fire,” Williams said.

He said the one-story barn, which he also referred to as a garage, had two pens, one for the kids and another for the adults. Each pen was 16 feet by 16 feet in size.

Dunn said the barn was engulfed in flames when he arrived.

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“Everyone was trying to get the goats out,” he said.

Firefighters from the Lakes Region Mutual Aid communities of Belgrade, Fayette, Readfield, Rome, Vienna and Wayne, working with Mount Vernon crews, were able to knock down the fire in about 20 minutes and extinguish it within an hour, though Dunn was arranging for an excavator to stir up the debris so crews could douse the hot spots.

The state remains under a red flag warning for high potential for forest fires.

“We don’t want a flare-up,” Dunn said.

He was unsure Thursday evening how the fire started, but he didn’t plan to call for an investigator from the Office of the State Fire Marshal.

Thursday’s was the second fire in as many days in Mount Vernon. Many of the same firefighters had responded Wednesday to a blaze on North Road that left six people homeless.

Craig Crosby — 621-5642

ccrosby@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @CraigCrosby4


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