With heavy snowfall in the region, Barneveld firefighters lost their home when their fire station collapsed Saturday.
While firefighters were at the station around 3 p.m., they "heard popping sounds, these members looked for the source of the popping sounds and discovered structural damage to the front truss area of our station," according to a statement.
Crews began removing their apparatus and other vital life-saving equipment from the firehouse.
When additional members arrived, they began removing snow, as the area had been recently affected by heavy snow fall, which lead to the collapse of a business on Feb. 18.
A contractor was called in to assess the situation and the Stittville Fire Department sent a ladder truck to assist.
"...members started coming up with a plan to start shoring up the structure, after a short time it was determined that the building had become too unstable, and our members were removed from the area and the building collapsed a short time later," the statement read. The collapse occurred at 5:22 p.m.
Firefighters are now responding from the Town of Trenton Highway Department garage and other apparatus are being stored by the Floyd and Newport fire departments.
"Please be rest assured that the members of the Barneveld Vol. Fire Department are ready to respond just like we always have since 1838," the department shared with their citizens.
Peter Matthews | Editor-in-Chief/Conference Director
Peter Matthews is the conference director and editor-in-chief of Firehouse. He has worked at Firehouse since 1999, serving in various roles on both Firehouse Magazine and Firehouse.com staffs. He completed an internship with the Rochester, NY, Fire Department and served with fire departments in Rush, NY, and Laurel, MD, and was a lieutenant with the Glenwood Fire Company in Glenwood, NY. Matthews served as photographer for the St. Paul, MN, Fire Department.
