Aug. 24--Henry Schmidt walked toward a pile of rubble that used to be his beloved barn. The faint smell of smoke still floated in the air four days after it was engulfed in flames.
A few colorful butterflies flew around the shattered stone and blackened wood where the names of horses used to be. Schmidt stared into what seemed like a grave site to him.
"I haven't been here since it happened," he said. "I didn't want to see it."
Early Sunday morning, Schmidt's 200-year-old barn at his farm in Pasadena burned to the ground. The Anne Arundel County Fire Department is ruling it an arson, as there was no electrical equipment or fuel inside to serve as an incendiary, fire spokesman Division Chief Keith Swindle said.
Thirty-five firefighters battled the blaze for more than three hours. A 22-year-old firefighter suffered a minor injury to his leg and was transported to Baltimore Washington Medical Center for treatment, Swindle said. He was released later that day, but will need some time to recover before returning to duty.
For Schmidt, this fire is nothing new. Twenty years ago, one of the farm's houses was burned down. A week after that, another barn was burned. Schmidt said both were ruled as arson. The crimes remain unsolved.
The farm and the 50-by-30-foot barn have been in Schmidt's family since 1920 -- he was even born on the farm. The barn consisted of three levels -- the first for the horses and mules, the second for equipment and the third to store hay.
When Schmidt stopped actively farming about 20 years ago, he decided to store $50,000 worth of farming equipment in there. He had hoped to later donate it to Hancock's Resolution, a historic property in Pasadena owned by Anne Arundel County that has been preserved as a Colonial-era farm.
Schmidt's most cherished item was a horse cart that his grandfather built for his father. Now that piece of his family's history is gone.
"If you've ever lost a loved one ... that's how I felt," Schmidt said. "It's part of my life. It's like someone going into my parents' grave stone and tearing it into pieces."
At around 2 a.m. Sunday, his daughter Deanna Baldwin, who lives in a house on the land, was awoken by her dog barking. She got up to let the dog out and could see the fire burning in the distance.
Baldwin called the fire department and then tried to inform her brother, Glenn Schmidt, who was visiting his daughter in Delaware.
"My son called me and was like, 'Dad, the barn is on fire,'" Glenn Schmidt said. "As soon as you hear that, you know it's gone."
His daughter is getting married in two years and had planned on using the barn in the ceremony. The barn is also very personal to him; he played and worked out of it as a child.
"The money is nothing," he said. "I'd give $50,000 just to have the barn back."
Henry Schmidt has refused offers from people wanting to buy the farm because it means that much to him and his family. For him, it is his life -- he started picking strawberries at the age of 4 and worked by his father's side every day.
But one of Schmidt's favorite memories is going on to the third level of the barn to play in the hay.
"That's what kids did," he said. "You didn't have anywhere else to go."
As of Friday, there were no leads concerning the arson, Swindle said. Fire officials are asking anyone with information related to the incident to contact investigators at 410-222-TIPS (8477) or [email protected].
Schmidt knows the historical importance his farm has in the county's agricultural history. In that vein, the family has tried hard to maintain the land and its history, he said.
"It's my whole family's life," he said. "We take it as a personal attack on us."
Copyright 2013 - The Capital, Annapolis, Md.
