BOSTON, N.Y. — In southern Erie County a community has come to the aid of a young dairy farmer whose livelihood nearly ended in flames early Wednesday morning.
Kyle Witkowski, 32, arrived just before 4 a.m. to milk the dairy cows he owns, and houses in a barn he was leasing from Telaak Farms is at 7646 Feddick Road.
According to his father, Dave Witkowski, Kyle entered the barn to observe a pipe feeding dry grain to cattle "glowing red" and then observed fire coming from the ceiling.
After calling 911, Kyle placed to a call to his father who lives just over a mile away.
Massive fire
"I told him I was on my way. I threw on some clothes, and before I got there I could see the glow in the sky, and by the time I arrived, the roof was on fire and the barn was pretty much gone."
However, by that time Kyle had somehow managed to shoo nearly 100 cows from the barn, except for three calves that were lost in the fire.
"Maybe it was adrenaline," Kyle's father said. "He doesn't remember how certain cows got out, he doesn't know if he unlocked gates, he doesn't know if they broke out of gates. It's just one of those things you just do what you got to do. Maybe the original farm owner, old Joe Telaak (deceased), was looking over us? Or maybe his grandfather was looking over him? But he's lucky on this day."
Here comes the cavalry
After the flames, which destroyed the century-old barn, were quelled, there was a lot to be done.
The cattle, which had escaped to fields and pastures on the Telaak farm, needed to be rounded up, and still needed to be housed and milked.
"Then everyone started calling and offering help and stuff," Dave Witkowski said.
Throughout the morning a steady stream of family, friends, and fellow farmers began to arrive bringing heavy equipment, and trailers to move the cattle to other farms offering to house them.
According to Dave and others, this was the last active milking facility in all of the town of Boston, so finding quarters for the cows was not a simple task.
"In recent years, most of the dairy farmers around here had quit and they'd taken their barns apart," Witkowski said.
But seven miles away Hilltop Farm in Eden, where the owners had only more recently sold off their cattle, the milking equipment still remained. And now, about 60 of Kyle's cows reside there, with the others taken in by other farms who had room for them.
"Everybody came out this morning, including people we haven't seen in years," Witkowski said. "We can't thank everybody enough. But when one guy is down everybody pitches in. That's why we are so fortunate that we are in that kind of a farming community."
The Teelaks, who owned the barn that burned, also expressed their gratitude for all of those who stopped by to offer assistance.