Granville Hook & Ladder Co. #1’s ladder truck came in handy during a frigidly cold and windy structure fire in Hebron last Monday night but the structure was a total loss.

The 41 by 62’ wooden structure formerly served as an old potato barn in the late 1800s and was remodeled into a three-story home at 4176 Route 30 in Hebron.

“(The fire) started in the front of the house but it was wind-driven,” Hebron fire chief Jeremy Harrington said. “The weather definitely did not help.”

Harrington confirmed there were no injuries from the structure fire. According to Washington County’s website in the assessment rolls section, the homeowner is Jonathan Monroe.

Harrington said Monroe did have home insurance and the Hebron fire department had a quick response time at around 5:45 p.m.

“I think they (dispatch) said we were at the scene in less than 15 minutes,” Harrington said.

Although it’s yet to be determined by fire investigators, Harrington said he has a feeling of how the fire started.

“Possibly electrical in nature, but they’re still not positive 100%,” Harrington said.

Harrington acknowledged the inconsistent weather being typical for structure fires, but the uncontrollable winds and freezing temperature served as a unique challenge to combat, as Hebron’s team remained until around 11:30 p.m.

“I believe on a normal day, we stop that fire,” Harrington said. “Kind of caught us off guard a little bit…the flames were probably shooting 50 feet in the air.”

The aerial attack of Granville Hook and Ladder’s water deployment doused the remaining flames from angles the other responding companies couldn’t reach.

“We got called to bring one tower ladder to the scene,” said Granville chief Ryan Pedone. “Our task essentially was to help extinguish the fire… the heavy winds were what was hindering Hebron’s attack on it.”

Harrington mentioned difficulty in accessing water quickly in the area of the fire.

“We didn’t really have a good place to pump water, we had to haul it from four or five miles away,” Harrington said.

“We’re running well over 1000 gallons of water a minute from the tower,” Pedone said. “It was crazy. The wind would pick up and it would start roaring again.”

Additional fire departments and companies assisting on the call were Salem, Hartford, Argyle, Shushan, Kingsbury, Cossayuna and Salem EMS.