Fire Ignited by Crashed Car Destroys Iconic Red Barn

WOLCOTT – The iconic red barn, close to Rte. 15, not far to the west of Wolcott village, caught fire and burned to the ground after it was hit by a small silver car whose engine caught fire, igniting the barn, according to Bruce Fortmann.

Fortmann was driving back to Hardwick after an eventful day in Williston, when a very small fire caught his eye as he drove by, he said. It took him a few seconds to realize it was not normal.

He turned around and got back to the site of the fire, passing it and turning around to face Hardwick. It was then he realized a car had hit the western side of a barn and the engine compartment was on fire, he said.

A pickup truck and a car had also stopped by then. A woman near her car told him, “there’s a guy in the car,” he said. The car was partway into the barn and tilting into a level lower than the road. A man from the truck, who Fortmann later learned was named Nick and from Greensboro Bend, had reacted decisively to smash the rear window of the small silver car with a cinder block, said Fortmann.

NIck had already reached in, trying to help extract the driver, who Fortmann said “was pretty loud.” The driver had been tossed to the vehicle’s passenger side and wasn’t very mobile, but Fortmann and Nick were finally able to reach him and drag him out. Fortmann said he was worried the car might tip into the barn if they climbed in too far to get the driver out.

The fire was still contained in the engine compartment then so they set down the driver who said he couldn’t move his legs.

“The fire began to catch on the barn and it was getting warmer,” said Fortmann, who noted a steep ledge to the right of the barn, so they moved the driver away “three or four times at 10 or so feet each time,” until they’d dragged him across the road. He said, “the driver was situationally confused,” and his loud voice suggested to Fortmann he might be drunk.

At that point the woman said the police were on their way. They moved their vehicles because, “The whole barn was engulfed and it was super hot,” said Fortmann.

He said, five or ten minutes later an ambulance arrived and the rescue staff loaded the driver of the crashed car into it. After some work to stabilize the driver, It headed west on Vt. Rte. 15.

Finally the fire department showed up, but the barn pretty quickly collapsed, before they had the fire contained, said Fortmann.

Fortmann said he reached home in Hardwick about 2 a.m., traveling through Elmore because the road was closed past the fire.

Wolcott Fire Department on social media, reported receiving a call at 12:38 a.m., Saturday, for a “fully involved barn fire” at 2214 Vt. Rte. 15, They said mutual aid members from 11 agencies assisted during the incident. Those agencies included the Elmore, Morrisville, Hardwick, Hyde Park, Greensboro and Woodbury Fire Departments.

Greensboro Fire Department reported its tanker “provided water supply for two hours before returning to the station. . . Crews were back in the station at approximately 2 a.m.”

Hardwick Fire Department reported on social media “Engine 1 and the tanker responded. Hardwick fire members were on scene for roughly seven hours before returning to quarters.”

Also on social media, The Lamoille County Sheriff’s Department reported Vt. Rte. 15 between North Wolcott Road and Elmore Pond Road in Wolcott was closed due to a structure fire. Motorists were to avoid the area or detour around by using North Wolcott Road to Gulf Road or Elmore Pond Road. Later it reported Vt. Rte. 15 in Wolcott was back open at 6:10 a.m.

Wolcott’s Fire Department said, Hardwick Rescue, NEMS Ambulance and Morristown Ambulance responded, as did the Lamoille Sheriff and Wolcott Auxiliary.

J.J.s Country Store was opened in the middle of the night by “Stephanie and Lisa,” reported the Wolcott Fire Department. Gravel Construction provided an excavator to assist in finding hot spots and Morrisville’s Polar Bear Towing assisted as well, they said.

The fire came at the end of a day that included Fortmann’s graduation from VTSU-Williston where he had received a B.A. in Pilot Tech and Flight Tech earlier that day, he said. He’d also passed his FAA pilot’s exam and moved out of where he’d been living to attend school that same day. To top that off, he said he planned to leave Monday, May 19, for a 10-day educational visit to China, where he’ll be studying architectural history.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story referred to Bruce Fortmann as Brian Fortmann and one of the captions misidentified the crashed vehicle as a truck. It was a car.