Fire destroys landmark red barn near Lumsden

While a grass fire swept through the Lumsden valley, a second fire destroyed a big historic red barn nearby.

The barn that stood over 50 feet tall (15 metres), 85 feet (26 metres) long and 65 feet (20 metres) wide for more than 100 years was reduced to rubble in a matter of hours.

Brad Stevenson, whose family has owned the barn and surrounding land for years, said he got a phone call around 8 p.m. telling him the structure had gone up in flames.

Such a beautiful barn turned to rubble in just a matter of hours. Locals say it’ll burn all night. #sask #saskfire pic.twitter.com/C0hJjy8wrb

— Jessika Guse (@JessikaGuse) April 27, 2018

“It was kind of a landmark in the area, everybody knew about it, it was kind of a massive, massive barn,” he said while watching the building burn.

If people ever needed directions, Stevenson said chances are most would say to turn near the “big red barn.”

“I’m sure everybody’s got a bit of a memory for this place regardless of whether they were supposed to be in the yard or not, but it became that landmark,” he said.

More than a dozen people gathered to watch and share memories as the flames lit up the night sky and could be seen as far as eight kilometres away.

Several locals gathered to share stories and watch as a historic barn near Lumsden went up in flames April 26 2018. (Jessika Guse/980 CJME)

He said there was a curiosity factor about the barn as he reflected on childhood memories of shovelling barley from the rafters into the basement and being a bit leery of the mice.

“Saskatchewan’s first motion picture was filmed here, which was Guitarman, and so (the barn) was quite predominantly in that movie and that was kind of a sense of pride,” Stevenson commented.

While he said he was sad to see the building go, Stevenson was thankful no one was hurt and said he was trying to look on the bright side.

“Luckily it happened when there was no crop out, that was always my fear is that somebody would light it up in harvest time and you would lose cropland to it,” he said.

He added that it provides a bit of closure, and said he at least won’t have to worry anymore about the safety hazards for any curious people who might wander in to check it out.