Union-News (Springfield, MA)
ASHFIELD, MA – A mysterious stranger saved Cleo Hall’s barn from burning down yesterday afternoon.
Ashfield Fire Chief Douglas Field said a person driving by the Hall farm, on the corner of Routes 112 and 116, saw a fire on a ramp leading to a barn and stopped and put out the blaze with a fire extinguisher. The man then got back in his car and disapppeared, Field said witnesses told him.
“We don’t know who did it,” Field said. “We’d like him to come forward so we can thank him.”
The fire, which was called in by neighbors at 6:27 p.m., was started by a cigarette that a farm worker thought he had put out on the ramp, but that wasn’t fully extinguished, Field said.
The worker later apologized for his carelessness. No charges will be filed.
“He said he thought it was completely out,” Field said.
Only the ramp was damaged.
Fire departments from Conway, Goshen and Buckland also responded to the scene, Field said.