LITCHFIELD — Firefighters spent several hours battling wind and flames this morning as a fire ripped through an unoccupied house on Plains Road.

Fire Chief Stan Labbe said the two-story house and attached barn at 702 Plains Road was owned by Janice Payson, and both structures were leveled in the fire. The house has been unoccupied for a few years, Labbe said. 

No one was injured. A horse kept at the barn was in another building and was not injured, Labbe said.

The fire was reported by a passerby about 5:30 a.m. this morning, Labbe said. There was almost no hope of saving the large barn and house, he said.

“It’s completely gone. It was gone before we got to it,” Labbe said. “The barn was down when we got here and the house was on its way.”

Dozens of firefighters from Dresden, Farmingdale, Gardiner, Monmouth, Richmond and West Gardiner joined Litchfield crews in fighting the blaze. Gusting winds made the task difficult.

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“It was blowing right to the road so we couldn’t set up near the road,” Labbe said. “We had to set up farther back.”

Firefighters had the blaze under control in a few hours, but were still there at mid-morning dousing hot spots.

“I have an excavator here now knocking it down,” Labbe said. “I don’t want it kindling in the wind.”

Labbe called for an investigator with the State Fire Marshal’s Office, though the extensive damage will make it difficult to determine how the fire started.

“Nobody lived there, but there was electrical to the barn,” Labbe said.


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