Residents of the Riverbend Hutterite colony near Waldheim, Sask., were cleaning up and making plans to rebuild after fire destroyed two barns and killed 6,000 hogs June 28.
Fire departments from Waldheim, Laird and Hepburn responded to the blaze, which started late in the afternoon. It was spotted about 6 p.m. in the attic above a boiler room.
Firefighters were able to keep the fire from spreading but the damage to the barns, which covered about 6,300 sq. metres, was several million dollars.
Doug Sanders, a supervisor in the provincial fire commissioner’s office, said July 9 that investigators could not determine a specific cause but narrowed it down to two possibilities.
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Work had been underway that day in the boiler room, including cutting and welding.
“It may have been the hot works,” Sanders said. “It could’ve been non-specified electrical distribution equipment failure.”
The latter would mean some type of wiring problem that could have occurred during the course of the work being done.
The colony had fire insurance and spent much of the week after the fire in meetings to determine its next steps.
A spokesperson for the colony did not return phone calls before The Western Producer deadline.
