Prior the stroke of midnight marking the new year, Canton Fire and Rescue were called to make one last incident for the 2010 year. St Lawrence County Central Dispatch dropped the tones for Canton Fire/Rescue to respond to a reported Structure Fire on the Miner Street Road in which the structure was in fact a barn. Immediately en route would be 4-3 (2nd Asst Chief McGregor), 4-2 (1st Asst Chief Crowe) and 4-4 (3rd Asst Chief McCluskey). First arriving, 4-3, reported a fully involved barn, which was in close vicinity to the residence. Engine 6 would be first out the doors with a full crew, which were ordered to pull into the driveway of the residence and stretch the 2-1/2" hoselines as well as set up the portatank for water supply. At this time, 4-3, now acting as Incident Command, began requesting the tanker task force bringing in mutual aid for water supply from Russell FD, Hermon FD, Pyrites FD, as well as Potsdam FD.
As units began arriving to the scene, multiple hoselines were stretched around the barn setting up a defensive operation, protecting the surrounding structures as it was clear that the barn itself was going to be a total loss. Use of deck guns from Canton and Pyrites Engines, the main body of fire was eventually extinguished. At this point manpower on scene were sent into the remnants of the barn to extinguish well hidden hot spots to ensure the fire would not rekindle and spread. The barn itself contained no farm animals, but in fact was acting as an Apiary for Bees. None of the bee hives were damaged, only multiple barrels of wax were lost along with the barn and some equipment. Canton and Mutual aid were finally released from scene after a hard firefight. No civilian or firefighter injuries were reported. The cause of the fire is currently under investigation by investigators from the St Lawrence County Fire Investigation Team.
