FABIUS, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — Update 2:00 p.m. –
Homeowner Jeffery Skinner says just before 5 a.m., he and his wife awoke to their dog howling and their barn in flames.
“I ran out behind the barn and got my dogs, but we lost the puppies,” says Skinner.
Skinner was able to get him and his wife out safely, along with their three adult dogs. However, 14 beagle puppies tragically lost their lives at just six weeks old. 13 of them had just been adopted. Skinner is now having to share the devastating news.
“They were all spoken for. We’re in the process of calling folks and telling them,” says Skinner.
Skinner added, “We were going to have them just a couple more weeks, and then they were going to go.”
Skinner says he has lived in his home for more than 30 years and says the barn that once stood behind his home was over 100 years old.
The Fabius Fire Department was the first to arrive on the scene. Several other agencies also responded.
“It was icy, terrible ice. As you know, it warmed up yesterday, so everything was icy. We had several firefighters fall. Luckily no one was hurt,” says Warren Virgil, Fabius Fire Chief.
Fire crews say it took roughly three hours to put out the fire. The barn was deemed a total loss. Chief Virgil says the rear part of the house suffered some damage, along with the next-door neighbor’s detached garage.
Skinner says he is devastated but is trying to stay positive.
“Were just you know, we’re all alive, you know. It could have been a lot worse, a lot worse,” says Skinner.
The cause of the fire is undetermined.
“It’s really undetermined, maybe in the area where a heat lamp was possibly. But it’s still under investigation,” says Virgil.
Onondaga County Fire investigators are currently investigating the fire.
Update 12:33 p.m. -according to the homeowner, 14 puppies were killed in the barn fire. 13 of them were recently adopted.
Update 8:15 a.m. The Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office says at least a dozen puppies died in a barn fire in Fabius early Thursday morning.
The Sheriff’s Office says emergency crews responded to a home on Main Street around 5 a.m. Firefighters found flames coming from a rear barn, which housed at least 12 puppies and heating elements like space heaters.
Several companies responded to the scene and temporarily closed Route 80. Fire investigators say the fire appears to be accidental and not suspicious in nature. According to the Sheriff’s Office, the barn is a complete loss. No other injuries were reported.
Original post 7:45a.m. The Fabius Fire Chief says 11 puppies died in a barn fire early Thursday morning.
Several fire companies were called to a home on Main Street near Route 91 and Petit Street just after 5 a.m. Crews on scene say the fire was in a neighboring barn garage. The fire chief says they’re unsure of the status of the adult dog.
Stay with NewsChannel 9 as we learn more.
