Three-Alarm Barn Fire in N.H. Destroys Spring Seeds

March 24--LITCHFIELD -- Wilson Farm hopes to open as planned on Mother's Day weekend, despite a three-alarm fire that damaged a barn and ruined nearly $25,000 worth of seed on Friday, owner Jim Wilson said.

"Anybody who's been through a fire knows it's a pretty unnerving thing, but we've got a pretty good plan in place," Wilson said Saturday. "We're planning to rebuild."

Almost 50 years after a fire leveled a barn on the same plot of land, emergency crews from 13 surrounding towns responded to a blaze at its replacement building at 144 Route 3A Friday, near the Hudson line.

"It could've been a lot worse," Wilson said. "The biggest thing is no one got hurt. The fire department did a fabulous job."

Investigators still were looking into the cause of the fire Saturday, Wilson said.

Litchfield fire issued a press release stating the state fire marshal's office ruled the fire "undetermined due to the extensive damage to the area of initial origin."

Structural engineers examined the 40-foot-by-100-foot building Saturday to see whether it could be salvaged -- the smell of ash still lingering at the scene.

The barn, which housed "a little bit of everything," Wilson said, had half its roof cave in on tractors and other equipment in the fire. The back portion of the barn stood in a pile of charred ruins, the sky and fields visible from Route 3A through the building's remnants.

Fire departments from Hudson, Merrimack, Amherst, Nashua and nine other towns responded to the fire Friday, as well as Litchfield police and highway departments.

Their concerns for fertilizers and pesticides inside the equipment barn concentrated efforts on protecting surrounding buildings.

Wilson's main farm stand, growing fields and greenhouses were not damaged in the fire, which was initially reported around 9:30; the fire will not impact the farm's retail store at all, Wilson said.

It did, however, destroy at least one or two tractors, Wilson said, as the farm continued to assess the damage Saturday.

Wilson also will need to order a new stock of seed for corn, beans, peppers, and tomatoes, among other crops, after nearly $25,000 worth was lost in the blaze, he said.

Still, he remained optimistic Saturday that the farm could open by its usual Mother's Day weekend start.

"This year's a cool start so we're going to be delayed anyway," Wilson said, adding that the fire will "make our life a little more confusing, but we'll get it done."

The farm usually gets seeds in the ground by mid-April he said, though last year's March heat wave got it planting a little earlier.

The Wilson family farms on approximately 450 of the 600 acres they own in Litchfield.

They have operated in New Hampshire since the early '60s and run another Wilson Farm in Lexington, Mass. that has been open since 1884, according to their website.

"The community's been great," Wilson said. "People, little by little, have been coming in and offering their appreciation for what we do."

Copyright 2013 - The Telegraph, Nashua, N.H.