UPDATED 4 p.m. Jan. 6, replacing original Jan. 3 story, and Jan. 5 update

Firefighters from eight agencies poured 40,000 gallons on water on a barn fire Saturday afternoon, Jan. 3 in Chimacum.

The wooden barn, about 20 years old, was fully engulfed when firefighters arrived a few minutes after the fire was toned out at 1:55 p.m. The structure contained farm equipment and vehicles.

“It's a lifetime. It's a death,” said property owner Linda Sexton of losing a barn that friend Kirk Salvatore had built about 20 years ago from wood milled from timber harvested on his historic Glendale Farm property.

According to East Jefferson Fire Rescue, the cause of the fire is uncertain.

"Everything was burned so severely, we were unable to discern the exact source," said Keppie Keplinger, spokesperson for East Jefferson Fire Rescue.

Sexton, who lives on the property, told the Leader Jan. 5 that tenants were organizing items in the barn, and she said it is unclear what was going on at the time of the fire. There was an apartment-type living space in the barn, but it was not occupied at this time, Sexton noted.

There were no animals and no hay in the barn. Sexton said she was using the structure for farm equipment and she had been drying bean seeds.

Equipment that was lost in the fire included a tractor and small implements, a bulldozer, three ATVs used to haul items from one part of the farm to another, and a large, walk-in cooler-freezer. Sexton estimated the value of the loss to about $100,000. She did not have insurance.

Salvatore, who died in 2010, had used the facility for his collection of Mercedes automobiles. Sexton, who inherited the property from Salvatore, said at least one Mercedes parked outside the barn was destroyed by the fire.

“I'm just in shell shock," Sexton, 68, and a Jefferson County resident since the late 1980s, said Monday morning. "My first reaction is to throw in the towel. I'm done with farming. All my resources and energy went into farming for the last five years."

A pump house near the barn was also destroyed by the flames.

“It's a lifetime," said Sexton, who as of Monday morning had not yet inspected the damage. "It represents a lot of labor, a lot of money and a lot of time.”

FIRE RESPONSE

The barn was "fully engulfed" when firefighters arrived after the 1:55 p.m. tone-out, Keplinger said.

"It was a standing barn but it was absolutely loaded with stuff," Keplinger noted. "It went pretty fast. There was so much stuff inside, there were occasional flare-ups."

The location at 431 Center Road is less than a mile from EJFR Station 11 in Chimacum. The blaze was well controlled in about two hours, and declared out at 4:39 p.m. Personnel stayed on scene overnight.

Water tender trucks lined up along Center Road, waiting to back down the long, one-lane driveway once an empty tender departed. The nearest fire hydrant would have required about 3,000 feet of hose, Keplinger noted.

The fire drew more than 30 personnel from the combined efforts of East Jefferson Fire Rescue, Port Ludlow Fire & Rescue, Quilcene Fire Rescue, Discovery Bay Volunteer Fire Department, Brinnon Fire Department, Naval Magazine Indian Island Station 91, North Kitsap Fire & Rescue and Poulsbo Fire Department. Washington State Patrol assisted with traffic control along Center Road, and the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office was also on scene.

UNIQUE PROPERTY

The barn is on the 180-acre Glendale Farm, in operation since 1857, and still one of the largest agricultural properties remaining in Jefferson County. Salvatore in 2009 made a conservation easement agreement with Jefferson County and Jefferson Land Trust to permanently protect Glendale Farm.

At one time, Salvatore had raised black angus on the property. But when he fell ill, Sexton said it was hard to keep the cows. The grazing land has since been leased to at least one other cattle rancher.

Sexton also has been working on growing nuts and fruit and had started an orchard. But she said that has been a struggle in part because trees she had in pots were not planted when they should have last summer. She also said she was having a hard time finding good help.

Asked what she planned to do now, she said, “It will rise out of the ashes. I'm just kind of tired. This is not a very just reward … There have been nights that I've been out at midnight planting. I was planting garlic by the moonlight.”

The property, which includes another barn and two dwellings, also has become a collection point for old recreational vehicles and other large objects.

Sexton has a history dating to the late 1980s of disagreements with state and county solid waste rules and officials, including the amount of vehicles and other items gathered on her property elsewhere in Beaver Valley. Sexton has been subject to disciplinary action by Jefferson County Public Health, according to county records from as recently as 2008, but not on the property where the barn fire occurred.

(The first version of this story appeared Jan. 3 on ptleader.com)