Vermont State Police On April 30, 2019 at approximately 1:00 pm a 911 call came in from the Administrative offices of Bennington College reporting a fire in the building. The staff was alerted to the fire by a contractor that was performing work on the outside of the building. At that time the North Bennington Fire Department was alerted and responded to the scene. Due to the amount of smoke and fire upon arrival additional assistance was requested and members of the following departments responded: Bennington FD, Shaftsbury FD, Bennington Rural FD, Hoosick Falls NY FD and North Hoosick Falls NY FD. Due to their efforts along with Bennington College Security everyone was safely evacuated and they were able to prevent extensive damage or spread of the fire. No injuries were reported.
Bennington College photo of fire at The Barn, April 30, 2019.
After the fire was extinguished North Bennington Fire Chief Keith Cross requested the assistance of the Vermont Department of Public Safety’s Fire and Explosions Investigation Unit to assist in confirming Origin and Cause for the fire. Members of this team immediately responded on 04-30-2019 to examine the scene.
As a result of the examination this fire is being classified as Accidental. In the area of origin there were two potential electrical causes for this fire. One being the general state of the wiring in the very old farm building that had been converted to office space and secondly the ongoing contractual work that had been on the exterior of this building for the past two weeks which included nailing siding and door and window trim onto places that needed replacement. This fire originated on the interior of the walls on the east side of the building and extended through the balloon frame construction and into the attic/crawl space which was extensively damaged. There had been electrical issues reported during the day by staff which included flickering lights and a humming or bee hive like sounds coming from the exterior wall.
It is recommended that in a commercial or residential situation when you experience an electrical anomaly or hear strange sounds coming from within a wall that has electricity running through it that you contact an electrician, building maintenance or electrical engineer to diagnose any possible issues. This could save lives and or prevent extensive damage to the structure. These issues can often be isolated simply by shutting off the breaker to an affected area until it can be properly diagnosed or inspected.
Damage to the property was estimated at approximately $250,000, according to the VSP report.
On the @AtBennington Twitter Feed, the college thanked firefighters from Vermont and New York who helped contain the fire:
Bennington College @AtBennington
Our gratitude to the firefighters who contained damage to the southeast wing and saved the Barn. (Picture from the Bennington College groundbreaking.)