Flames broke out around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday at this barn in Sweet Valley, according to Hunlock Creek fire chief Chris Wrubel. Equipment stored inside the barn was destroyed.
Kevin Carroll | Times Leader
Click here to subscribe today or Login.
Firefighters are seen with the aftermath of a barn fire in Sweet Valley on Tuesday afternoon. No one was injured in the blaze, which took crews about two hours to knock down.
Kevin Carroll | Times Leader
ROSS TWP. — An intense fire ripped through a Main Road barn on Tuesday afternoon, completely destroying the structure and shutting down nearby roads for hours.
Nothing was left but rubble and some twisted metal after the blaze, which burned for about two hours, according to Hunlock Creek Fire Chief Chris Wrubel.
“The call came in around 2:27, the fire was well-involved when responders arrived,” Wrubel said.
No one was inside the barn at the time of the fire, according to Wrubel, with no injuries reported and no one unaccounted for. The barn housed some farming equipment that was destroyed in the blaze.
Fire and emergency companies from all over the region responded to the scene of the barn fire, located next to the Payton’s Place restaurant in the Sweet Valley region of Ross Township.
In addition to Sweet Valley and Hunlock Creek, responders came from Kunkle, Back Mountain Regional, Trucksville, Lake Silkworth, Huntington Township, Fairmount Township and Jackson Township.
Firefighters were able to contain the blaze and keep it from spreading to neighboring properties.
Payton’s Place was left untouched by the fire, while Wrubel said that shutters on a house across the street were melted as a result of the extreme heat.
Main Road and Broadway Road were both closed to all traffic while crews worked on extinguishing the fire, with the roads blocked off starting at Schoolhouse Road, near the Ross Elementary School.
A message sent out to Ross Elementary parents on Tuesday afternoon advised them to seek alternate routes when coming to pick up their children, and that delays could be possible while the area was closed off.
Wrubel expected both affected roadways to be reopened to traffic later Tuesday evening.