A large fire tore through Migliorelli Farm along Budd Corners Road early Friday morning, taking out a 20,000-square-foot barn housing equipment, supplies, hay and more. Firefighters from 12 local companies worked for nearly nine hours to put the fire out. No one was injured and one baby raccoon was rescued.
“When you go there, it’s like going to a funeral,” Ken Migliorelli, the farm’s proprietor, said. “I got a phone call at 2 a.m. from the fire department. By the time I got there, it was in a blaze.”
Several days later, it’s not yet clear what started the fire. Migliorelli has been meeting with Dutchess County investigators and said that so far, he does know that whatever happened wasn’t his fault — a big relief.
“The investigator was there; we were both scratching our heads. Where the fire started, there was no equipment and minimum electric. We are thinking it came from another source. We are having a meeting with my electrician, too,” he said.
Migliorelli Farm is one of the largest regional farms, stretching across 650 acres throughout Red Hook and Tivoli. This particular location has been a farm for over 100 years, though not in Miglorielli’s name. “That was the farm my uncle purchased in 1969. I acquired it not too long ago,” he said.
Migliorelli has never experienced anything like this blaze before, though it’s the sort of thing any farmer worries about. He learned in the past few days that the original barn on this property actually burned down before, in 1954.
“It’s one of these old barns with beams and all that. What was there was built in 1955,” he said. A big wooden structure filled with apple bins, hay and firewood is “perfect for a fire,” he lamented. The electricity had been upgraded to new panels five or six years ago.
“You always take precaution to prevent things like this,” Migliorelli said.
Late May is the busy season on any regional farm, and the aftermath of the fire has been chaotic. The fire didn’t hurt any crops, just the equipment needed to tend to them. Migliorelli said his farmers are putting in the first big planting of tomatoes and preparing to plant peppers and eggplants.
“The normal farm activity has to continue,” he said. He has heard from some people who assumed he would shut down after the fire. “I was like, we can’t. The show has got to keep going.”
Migliorelli has also heard from what feels like the entire community — “150 texts from friends, colleagues and other farms,” he said. His voicemail is full. A GoFundMe fundraiser set up by Katherine Hardeman, a friend’s daughter, asked for $75,000 and is currently at $86,000 and climbing.
While Migliorelli Farm is a large operation locally, farming isn’t a lucrative business. “Most farmers are land rich and bank poor,” Migliorelli said. “You never have enough insurance to have enough. That could put you out of business itself.”
What insurance he did have will help, but not enough to replenish supplies and equipment, Migliorelli said. Not to mention rebuild demolished structures. A building as large as the one that burned houses a lot of forklifts, farm implements and other necessities.
Source: timesunion.com
Photo Credit: ontario-ministry-of-natural-resources
Categories: New York, Crops, Equipment & Machinery