CASSVILLE, N.Y. – A dairy barn in Cassville was destroyed by fire Sunday morning. The fire broke out shortly after midnight on Canning Factory Rd. 
The first crews on scene found the barn fully engulfed in flames and firefighters and others could be seen helping to move cows out of the barn that consisted of calves, some show heifers and two heifers ready to calve. 

The barn belongs to the Worden family, Wormont Dairy, a family-owned dairy with over 200 cows. According to Lindsey Worden, the entire parlor area and  box stall barn burned. No animals were lost and the freestall barn that houses the milking cow was untouched. 

Crews from Cassville, Clayville, Paris Hill, Sauquoit, Waterville, Bridgewater, and Willowvalle responded. West Winfield Fire Department was on standby and Edwards Ambulance also responded to the scene.

Crews spent several hours working to bring the fire under control. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Now that I've had some time to reflect and the literal shock of everything has worn off, I wanted to write a little something about this weekend.

48 hours ago, my family was all together at the dining room table celebrating mom and dad's birthday. I had just walked through the cows and done a little clipping that night, so proud of how the whole herd looked and how well they were responding to the changes we had been making the ration and fresh cow protocols.

Less than four hours later, I was calling 911 and my brothers who live off the farm and throwing on clothes to help dad and Eric get the calves and heifers out who were penned/tied in the box stall barn adjoined to our parlor/holding area/office, which was totally engulfed in flames. Just as Eric was carrying the last calf out (even if it wasn't the last it would have had to have been as the barn was totally filled with smoke and starting to catch fire as well), the fire trucks showed up, and volunteer firefighters, friends and neighbors were pouring in. We managed to wrangle all the baby calves and young heifers into a bay of our machine shed, and got the older show heifers who were there into our heifer freestall, while dad and the boys were helping the firefighters.

By 4am, all was quiet. At daybreak we met to try and figure out a game plan for how to get 275 cows milked on a farm with no more milking equipment. Before long, with the help of some awesome neighbors, we had figured out two farms who could take the majority of our milking cows (heifers and dry cows are staying), and a short while later, cattle trailers started showing up, as did more friends and neighbors to help get them loaded. At one point, we had at least 10 cattle trailers lined up out the driveway, and we got animals relocated more efficiently than I ever imagined would be possible.

Thanks to...
All of the friends and first responders who showed up at 1am on Sunday morning to help get our immediate emergency under control.

Friends and neighbors who showed up from near and far with trailers, helped get cattle loaded and moved, helped get scared cows through a new parlor set up and milked a double shift so our cows didn't go 24 hours without being milked, dropped off food and drinks, or offered any other kind of support.

The dairies who opened their barns and took our girls in and are caring for them.

The electricians who worked all day Sunday to restore power so we had lights (and HEAT!) in our house, and water to the house and more importantly all the animals.

The companies who worked with us quickly to help us with things like restoring our DairyComp records on a new computer, getting basic medical and breeding supplies and all those little things that we need to keep the wheels on the bus this week. It is a really strange feeling to literally have none of those everyday supplies like calf bottles, navel dip, ear tags, IV kits, etc.

Everyone who reached out with suggestions for help or just kind words, prayers and encouragement, by call, text, FB message or dropping by. Just because we didn't respond yet, doesn't mean we didn't see it and feel grateful!

My family is incredibly humbled. I'd love to give some personal shoutouts but I don't want to risk missing anyone, and there are many people who I'd love to thank (again) but I don't even know their names.