Barn fire kills dozens of cows in Pennsylvania

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    TROY, Pennsylvania (WNEP) — Fire crews responded to a large barn fire on Porter Road on Thursday.

It took crews around two hours to put out the flames.

“The trouble with barns are they are so open and most of them are old and there is hay and everything else once they go it doesn’t take long before its gone,” said Troy Fire Chief Roy Vargson.

The barn belonged to dairy farmer Kris Wright.

“I was hoping I could push it out the door, but it was clear in the back so I went down and around, the call to the fire department had already been made and I was just hoping it would stay upstairs,” said Wright.

He said its been a rough few days for his family; the large fire killed 48 mature cows and 11 young stock.

“I lost, to me, the connection to my cows, the barn can be replaced and everything, but those cows had sentimental value,” Wright said.

Wright said he may give up dairy farming because of the damage done to his barn and livestock.

“We’ve been focusing on the cleanup, trying to take a minute and not make any quick decisions and think things through and what happens next is going to depend on a lot of things,” Wright explained.

Wright has been farming since high school and this is one of the toughest challenges he has faced yet as a farmer.

However, he said the support from his local community has been overwhelming.

“I was on that end of the barn most of the time and I heard that my neighbors loading heifers on the other end and I knew nothing about it and even our local feed company had gates here to help load,” Wright said.

Troy Fire Chief Roy Vargson said that the cause of the fire is still under investigation.

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