Fire levels Woodbury farm
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By Thatcher Moats Times Argus Staff - Published: April 11, 2009
WOODBURY – The day after a fire ravaged his house and farm in Woodbury, Paul Betz was awestruck by the level of destruction.
"It's crazy," Betz said on Friday morning. "Just crazy."
The fire destroyed his house, garage, a corn crib, a van, a car, a truck, a tractor and more, causing an estimated $400,000 in damage. Flames also blackened a hillside and a 60-foot tree at the back of the property, and damaged four greenhouses.
A hulking 500-gallon propane tank was launched into a field about 200 feet from where it originally sat next to the garage. It was blackened and had a hole in its side, but an investigator is unsure if it exploded or was launched there by the pressure of the gas, or whether the explosion heard by neighbors came before or after the fire started.
"It's beyond my field of expertise," said Detective Sgt. Mark Galle of the state police's fire investigation unit. Galle said a private fire investigator hired by Betz's insurance company will examine the scene in the next few days and the two will compare notes to try to determine what caused the fire.
Betz, a 41-year-old vegetable farmer, pointed out that the incident could have been worse — no one was injured in the blaze. Betz's wife, Kate Camilletti, was at work and his two children were at school when the blaze gutted the house.
"I'm really glad no one was here, because we'd be planning funerals," he said.
The family's cat, Oosa, died in the fire, however.
"She was a good cat," Betz said.
A neighbor rescued the family dog, Twister, from the burning building, said Betz.
Stuart Hall, who lives down the road from Betz's farm, said he felt and then heard the explosion and saw a mushroom cloud rise.
"It was fairly substantial," Hall said, referring to the blast. "It was like something out of World War II."
Hall yelled to his son-in-law to call 911 and then raced to the farm, which is called High Ledge Farm.
He kicked in the door and found Twister hiding behind a curtain, he said. Hall picked up the dog and passed it to another neighbor. Hall searched the burning house, and when he found no one inside, he left.
"I really didn't feel like hanging around," Hall said.
Neighbors near the farm on Chartier Hill Road called 911 at 11:57 a.m.
Betz was in Hyde Park when he got a call telling him his home was burning.
"I had a 40-minute drive, and you kind of come up with a plan on the way home, but I didn't anticipate this," he said.
Betz stopped at a hardware store to buy a heater for his greenhouse, in which vegetables were growing, but when he got home he realized it wouldn't do any good. The plastic on the greenhouses had burned off their frames and the plants were destroyed.
The Woodbury Fire Department fought the blaze, along with firefighters from East Montpelier, Hardwick, Cabot, Worcester and Plainfield. Woodbury Fire Chief Dana Huoppi said multiple buildings, the car, van and truck were already burning when he arrived, along with the grass on the hillside.
"The amount of fire we started off with was enormous," Huoppi said.
The greatest worry was a second, smaller propane tank that was venting gas and shooting flames higher than the two-story house, said Huoppi.
Firefighters hosed down the tank to prevent it from exploding, Huoppi added.
With multiple buildings and vehicles burning, it was extraordinarily hot in the area, said Huoppi.
"The heat was so extreme that a tree on the other side of the road caught on fire," he said.
Firefighters pumped water out of a pond about 400 feet from the house, said Huoppi, which meant firefighters didn't have to truck in water.
It took firefighters about three hours to extinguish the flames, said Huoppi.
The grass was wet, Huoppi said, and the grassfire burned itself out.
"We were fortunate," he said. "If it hadn't been so wet lately it would have been a whole other story chasing that. It was fairly breezy."
The breeze may have helped save the largest barn on the property and a henhouse as it pushed the flames and heat in the other direction, Huoppi said. One tractor and some other farm equipment were also spared.
Galle hasn't determined the cause of the fire, but he said it's not suspicious.
"There are so many different things that could have caused this," said Galle, noting there was electrical wiring and heaters for the greenhouses near where he believes the fire may have started. The propane tank was also in that area.
Galle said he doesn't think the propane tank was launched by its own explosion.
"To say it blew up and landed over there, I don't think that is correct," said Galle.
There are several reasons Galle believes this: The propane tank has a hole in it, but is not ripped or torn. It is also not totally blackened, though it did appear burned. And other items around where the propane tank originally sat are burned badly, but do not look like they were subjected to a huge explosion.
It's possible, Galle said, that there was some kind of failure to the tank and the pressure from the gas projected it across the field.
Betz believes the gas leaked, formed a cloud and then ignited.
The house that burned was built in the 1880s, Betz said. He bought the property in 1998 and began farming there the next year.
"This is an old Woodbury house and to have it end is really sad," said Betz. "Both of my kids were born upstairs. There's been a lot of living and dying in this house, and it's over and that really stinks."
Betz and Camilletti sell their vegetables commercially at the Montpelier Farmer's Market and through a community supported agriculture program, or CSA.
Betz said he plans to fix the greenhouses as soon as he can. The clean-up at his property has to wait until investigators are finished with their work, he said.
Betz said his family has been given clothes and a place to stay.
"We're being well supported," he said.
The Montpelier Farmers' Market starts in about three weeks, said Betz, and he plans to be there, though he said he's not sure what he'll have to sell.
"It's all going to come back together fine," he said.
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