Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 5, 1995 TAG: 9502060055
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
An outpouring of help from the New River Valley to North Carolina meant the owners of the Little Mountain Dairy in Willis, about eight miles southwest of Floyd, were able to have their cows milked and sheltered by Friday evening.
``It was like an auction sale, it got so thick in here,'' Iva Dell Harris said Saturday of the friends who drove in with food and trailers to help transport the cows.
About 80 high-producing Holsteins went via tractor-trailers to Mount Airy, N.C., where Little Mountain's milk goes. Curtis and Mark Sowers from Floyd took another 14. Dairy farmers from Indian Valley and Montgomery County also chipped in.
``It was just amazing, the people that came to help,'' Harris said.
She and her late husband, Martin Elmon Harris, started the dairy, on a hilltop at Virginia 750 and U.S. 221, decades ago. Her sons, Freddie, Eddie and Gary Harris, run it now.
About 8 a.m. Friday, Gary Harris looked out a window and saw smoke coming from behind the dairy barn.
``He said, `I believe that barn's on fire,''' Iva Harris recounted. ``He jerked his boots on and took off up there.''
Though too late to stop the flames, the Harris brothers rushed in to save the Holsteins.
``They had a pretty rough time getting them out, but they did,'' their mother said. One cow was slightly burned, but seemed to be doing OK Saturday afternoon, she said.
Less than 10 minutes after a call from Little Mountain Dairy, volunteer firefighters from Floyd County's Station 2 in Willis were on the scene. Trucks from Station 1 in Floyd and Station 4 in Indian Valley arrived later, bringing a total of about 18 firefighters to the dairy.
``They were just getting [the last cows] out when we arrived,'' said Willis station Chief Tony Weddle.
Firefighters with the first engine sprayed water on the heavy smoke and fire pouring from the milking parlor and holding-tank sections. A second truck attacked flames on the large loafing barn, a sheltered area where the cattle rest and feed when not being milked. Other trucks shuttled water to the farm from the Willis station.
``My second unit stopped it there,'' Weddle said. ``They made a real good stop.''
``They saved the loafing barn,'' Iva Harris agreed.
It took about 45 minutes to extinguish the flames. Weddle estimated the fire damaged about 75 percent of the barn. He said electrical problems appeared to have been the cause.
Iva Harris said an insurance adjuster would drive from Martinsville on Monday to look at the damage. She didn't know when the dairy would be back in operation.
Dave Gardner, Virginia Cooperative Extension agent for Floyd, lives near Willis and was at the fire scene Friday.
"Our dairy ifarms continue to get larger, but we have fewer of them all the time," he said.
by CNB