Nobody was injured but over 50 cattle were lost in a fire near Cranbrook Tuesday.
Firefighters from Huron East responded to the call around noon on Tuesday and were aided by several other area departments. Huron County OPP closed McNabb Line for several hours while crews tended to the fire.
The blaze was started after a tractor pulling a manure spreader caught fire near a barn, which caused the building to ignite.
Huron East Fire Chief Kent Readman says it was a big team effort to get it under control.
"We had approximately 22 apparatus on scene at the largest point and approximately 70 firefighters," he said. "We had the fire mostly contained and knocked down by about 8 p.m. and then crews remained on scene throughout the night just to monitor hot spots."
There were reportedly around 450 cattle in the barn, and OPP estimate approximately 70 were lost.
Police said damage is believed to be several millions of dollars, as the barn was a complete loss.
Huron fire crews also had to respond to a couple barn fires on Monday near Blyth. There was another one in Lucan on Tuesday as well.
Despite this abnormal blip, Readman says he doesn't think the current dry conditions have been much of a factor in all the barn fire activity.
"Both the fires we've had have been definitely wind driven which spreads the fire drastically faster than normal," he says. "We've had very strong winds that haven't helped that they've pushing the fires quicker than normal. As far as the rest of the weather conditions, the heat doesn't help obviously, but I don't think it's necessarily the cause of it."
