CHIMACUM — Authorities continued searching for information Sunday in the investigation into a fire that destroyed an equipment storage barn and several vehicles on a historical farm.
The large barn at Glendale Farm, 431 Center Road near state Highway 19, was destroyed Saturday afternoon by a fast, hot fire.
“I’m waiting for the shock to wear off,” Linda Sexton, owner of Glendale Farm, told the Peninsula Daily News on Sunday.
“A tenant was working with wood stain and returned to the house for lunch, and while he was in the house he saw the flames,” Sexton said.
The fire destroyed most of the farm’s working equipment, including a tractor, an excavator, three all-terrain vehicles, a garden tractor, aerators and many attachments for them, a $20,000 walk-in freezer with a new compressor, and drying racks for bean seed stock, she said.
She said it also destroyed a pump house, knocking out water to the farm’s buildings.
The barn was about 15 years old and was built by former owner Kirk Salvatore from timber logged on the Glendale property, she said.
Sexton inherited the farm from Salvatore when he died five years ago.
The investigation is expected to take some time, and no new information or determination as to the cause of the fire is expected to be available from authorities until next week, said Keppie Keplinger, East Jefferson Fire-Rescue spokeswoman.
A large collection of vehicles and fuel tanks were destroyed in the blaze, and some of it “popped off” during the fire, Keplinger said.
“The barn was just full of stuff,” she said.
The barn was lost before firefighters arrived, according to reports from East Jefferson Fire-Rescue.
It “was totally engulfed almost immediately, completely involved, completely gone” when firefighters arrived at 1:54 p.m., Keplinger said.
Keplinger said much of the barn was of built of old wood, but there also were newer additions included in the barn’s construction.
Firefighters had to bring in water tankers because there were no hydrants near the fire scene.
In addition to the destroyed pump house, a window of a nearby rental home was cracked by the heat, Sexton said.
Firefighters from Port Ludlow, North Kitsap, Discovery Bay, Poulsbo, Quilcene, Brinnon and Indian Island assisted in fighting the fire
The 180-acre Glendale Farm is one of the largest properties in Jefferson County still in active agricultural use and has been protected by Jefferson Land Trust since 2009.
According to the Jefferson Land Trust website, Glendale has “150 acres of prime soils, 23 acres of forest, more than a half-mile of Chimacum Creek, scenic vistas from two rural arterials and habitat for salmon, trumpeter swans, eagles, hawks and many other animals.”
Located at the confluence of Beaver and Center valleys, the two largest agriculturally zoned areas in Jefferson County, Glendale Farm has been under plow and hoof since 1857, with a history of dairy and cheese production.
Salvatore operated the farm as an organic beef farm, and the cattle were sold after his death.
The farm currently is in transition, including an immature orchard planted for the future, Sexton said.
There was no insurance on the farm buildings, she said.
Sexton said she has dealt with the county in regards to “solid waste” issues on another property, but contrary to a published report Saturday, Glendale Farm is not part of that dispute.
________
Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
