WILKINSON — Nick Atkins and his wife, Bonnie, had just finished storing 600 bales of hay in the upstairs area of their historic barn Sunday night to feed their animals this winter when tragedy struck around 7:45 p.m. As Nick was bringing in his stallion for a nightly feeding, he looked up and saw smoke coming out of the corner of the north section of the large barn.
He quickly put the stallion in the paddock and called for help. The Almost Heaven Farm Animal Sanctuary, in the 8000 block of North State Road 109 in Wilkinson — home to nearly three dozen farm animals — was in trouble.
“There was just smoke everywhere, and two of our pigs were still inside the barn and would not come out,” Nick Atkins said.
The Atkinses both raced inside the smoke-filled barn and wrestled with the two pigs — named Fat Back and Streak of Lean — and finally got them out of the barn just as firefighters from the Wilkinson Volunteer Fire Department arrived on the scene around 8 p.m.
While all ended well for the couple, the firefighters and the animals, the north side of the historic barn, which was built in the late 19th century and which stored the horses, horse gear, feed and more, was destroyed.
“The barn had a hawk-billed front and was real landmark for the folks here,” Nick Atkins said. “We hated to see it burn.”
The farm sanctuary is home to seven large horses, a miniature horse, three big cows, four pigs, a lamb, at least 12 goats and more. Nick Atkins said it was so hard to see all the displaced animals in the field staring at the barn as it went up in flames.
“It was truly heartbreaking,” he said. “Words cannot express the sadness we felt.”
Capt. John Collins of the Wilkinson Volunteer Fire Department lives about four miles away from the animal sanctuary and said he could see the smoke billowing into the sky as he approached. He saw the couple and several others gathering animals, making sure all were safe.
“When I got there, the north side of the barn had heavy smoke coming out of it,” Collins said. “We immediately called for more help, more tankers, as soon as we got on the scene.”
The south part of the barn was saved, but Collins said the the north section of the main barn, a 40-by-40-foot area, was a total loss.
One of the issues the firefighters had to deal with was lack of water. The firefighters also eventually brought in a large excavator and pulled as much hay out of the barn as they could to help get the blaze under control. The departments took about 4½ hours to fight the fire and were on the scene for nearly eight hours.
Assisting the Wilkinson department were crews from Hancock and surrounding counties: Shirley, Kennard, Carthage, Charlottesville, Adams Township, Green Township and Greensboro volunteer fire departments; Knightstown Wayne Township Fire Department; Pendleton/Fall Creek Township Fire Department; and the Greenfield Fire Territory.
Collins praised officials with the county’s 911 center for doing an excellent job of keeping everyone informed and communicating, as well as helping to organize getting help to the area.
“They got us everything we needed,” Collins said.
Chief Matt Decker of the Wilkinson department said mutual aid from other fire departments is essential and that the department is thankful for the assistance it received.
Steve Kropacek, fire marshal for the Greenfield Fire Territory said the investigation is still underway but noted he might not ever be able to determine the cause and would not rule out something like spontaneous combustion as the cause.
“We can’t really rule anything out right now, and that does happen sometimes with hay,” Kropacek said.
While the sanctuary is insured, the cost to replace the historic barn will be expensive. The insurance on that section of the property is only $20,000, Atkins said. The cost to replace the barn likely is closer to $100,000.
“When you run a rescue like this, the homeowners insurance is absolutely outrageous, so we tried to stretch it as far as we could,” Nick Atkins said. “We know it was stretched way too thin.”
A GoFundMe page has been created to help the family raise the additional $80,000 they’ll need to make sure the animals have shelter this winter.
“I don’t know who is going to help us, but I do know God will help us,” Nick Atkins said. “He’s led us this far, and we know he will not forsake us now.”
The couple were looking forward to celebrating 20 years of running the farm animal rescue this November. They have helped give farm animals in need a safe haven since they moved from North Carolina to the eastern part of the county in 2001. Their operation received nonprofit status in 2013.
One of their pigs came from a woman in Michigan who had terminal cancer. The woman drove her pig to the farm before she died, knowing her animal was in good hands with a safe place to live.
“We had the same issue with a cow,” Nick Atkins said. “We are on the state registry as a rescue, and when we get called, we help.”
People can also find out more about the rescue on their Facebook page, which also has a link to the fundraiser.
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How to help the Almost Heaven Farm Animal Sanctuary:
Visit: GoFundMe.com
Search for: Animal Sanctuary Barn Loss Organized by Bethany Rupp.
Goal: $80,000
Amount raised as of late Wednesday afternoon, June 2: $6,860.
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