Our relaunch was a gorgeous day for an outdoor tent city. It felt so good to see smiles on faces, children playing, groups sitting on the grass eating, and the busy buzz of shoppers connecting with vendors. It was a day of joy on the farm and it was what we needed to lift our heavy hearts and fill us with hope that soon we can once again have our indoor market.
A combination of large tents made up the main tent area. Across the driveway and along the edge of the lawn were numerous pop-up tents.
Mason’s Lobster Roll and the Powhatan Fire/Rescue Department were our food vendors.
I
It seemed so right to invite the fire department back for a “good” day on the farm and let them have a fundraiser. The children enjoyed seeing the trucks and fire fighters up close and personal. There were lots of little “future” fire fighters running around with smiles on their faces and plastic helmets on their heads.
The hours for our outdoor market is Thursday – Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays 8-12. (Weather permitting). Once we are back into a permanent structure, we will go back to our original plan of all week shopping.
Behind the scenes…..to prepare for our outdoor market, we took this……
and made this to as a shelter for the refrigerators and freezers for our meats (beef, poultry, pork and lamb), cheese, butter and other dairy products.
Samson welcomes you to the barnyard and he is so glad to be home. He was taken to the Stauffer farm after the fire where he and his little family were treated with the best of care.
Never could we have imagined such a devastating fire that almost completely destroyed our business and farm shop. Here is our story.
Saturday evening, April 12, Gene and I were in our comfy spots in the living room, me resting in the lazy boy chair catching up on social media and Gene stretched out on the sofa watching TV. Our peaceful quiet evening was shattered at 6:55 when my cell phone rang. It was Luanne from up at the horse stables. “Are you burning something down there”? I responded, “No” and she said, “You better look out your window.”
The sight from my kitchen window stunned me. I yelled to Gene, “The store is on fire.” He leaped off the sofa, shoved on his shoes and raced to the store on the golf car while I dialed 911. Then I took my first picture.
6:56 p.m.
Mike, Luanne’s husband, was there in an instant. He and Gene tried to enter the store but the smoke was too thick.
4 minutes later…7 pm. The retail store was totally engulfed. Black smoke was pouring from the old dariy stanchion barn which we used to warehouse feed.7 minutes later…7:03 p.m. They quickly ran out of water. Ironically the county “dry hydrants” were dry and they had to pull from a nearby pond in Maple Cottage.
The fire trucks started to arrive and water sprayed on the fire. Heavy smoke was also coming from the back left of the stanchion barn where our main warehouse of feed was located.
7:06 p.m……10 minutes. The firemen attended to break into the stanchion barn door.
7:07 p.m….. 11 minutes7:09 p.m…… 12 minutes. The stanchion barn was fully engulfed.7:12 p.m…. 15 minutes. The whole structure was a totaly engulfed inferno. There was no saving the stucture-just trying to control the spread.
It is a terrible thing to sit in a lawn chair in your backyard and watch your business, your livelihood, burn to the ground and there is nothing you can do. By this time there were lots of fire and tanker trucks. 55,000 gallons of water were dumped on the fire. I am not sure how many counties responded to the call but I know we saw Amelia, Goochland, and Huguenot. Someone said they were about 15 fire trucks here.
We lost a total of six buildings, five of which were attached to our store complex and the farm shop which was to the right.
7:27 p.m…. 31 minutes.
I asked about the towering, black smoke billowing from the structure. I commented to the fire chief I couldn’t figure out what was burning as there were no tires or anything rubber that I could think of. He said it was the feed. Feed have oils in it and even though it is vegetable based, it burns black. I found that very interesting.
7:36 p.m.
Family and neighbors gathered to watch and grieve with us. There were literally the arms of Jesus surrounding us and holding us up. We knew they cared and it was good to have people to help process what was happening. Someone said that cars were parked all they way out the driveway to the road.
Later we were told that the smoke was seen in Amelia and Cumberland. Someone traveling on 45 from Farmville saw the smoke. Bits of insulation floated to a neighbor’s field a mile or more away.
The sheriffs department flew a drone overhead the entire time shining a light for the firemen and watching for spreading flames and hot spots. They told us that there were four or five other drones of neighbors taking a look but they stayed their distance and did not interfere.
7:41 p.m.7:46 p.m…. 1 hour.
The really bright yellow over the top of the firetruck are the four propane tanks that were at the back of the store. They did not explode but vented as they were suppose to do fueling a very hot fire that spread to our personal storage room and farm shop. Our daughter and her husband (Jill and Obe) are in the process of moving to Powhatan and had a significant amount of things already moved and in the storage room by the shop. To make room in our house, I had stored some of my personal things also; pictures, family treasures, quilts made by mother and my grandmother, blankets, books, childhood toys and treasures, floor shampooer, grill, etc.7:47 p.m. The storage room and shop are now engulfed.
Our round baler was in the shop getting it ready for the hay season. They finished at 4:30. The smoke was too intense to get it out. We had an appliance man add freon to a fridge in the store earlier in the afternoon and he asked me to check it an hour or so later to make sure it was working properly. I checked it at 4:30 also. Nothing seemed amiss and the fridge was working properly.
8:50 p.m.8:55 p.m. Two hours….all that was left was an arid smelling, smoking and burning shell of a stucture and rubble. Amazingly the feeders on the front dock of the store survived!
We started Hertzler Farm and Feed in October 1983. It had survived the test of time for 42 years. Quarterfield Markets, the pride and vision of Jill and our granddaughter Lauren, which had been open one week was gone. On launch day the Saturday before we had over 1000 here. Now all that was left of our business was hay, straw, fertilizer, lime and shavings as they were in another warehouse and containers.
Finally at 1 a.m in the morning we gathered in the living room of the house to decompress and process as a family. At 2 a.m. we all headed off to bed, exhausted, emotionally drained, sad, and weary. There were so many questions and so few answers. A firetruck stayed and kept watch all night for flare ups and hot spots. All I could say as I crawled into bed was….God I trust you. We are all safe, it could have been much worse. Give us peace, wisdom and your guidance for the future.
I am a country gal who enjoys writing, gardening, baking and my family. My husband and I own a retail feed store and it keeps us active and busy. We love living in the country and on our beef farm. We retail natural, Angus, dry-aged beef in our store and a local "natural" store.
My writings, called "From A Grandma's Perspective" are mostly inspired from our five delightful grandchildren. These along with "Life Perspective" can read on our web page at www.hffinc.com under the "Who We Are" tab.
By the way, I love hearing from people who read my blog!!!
