BUFFALO, N.Y. — A town of Wales business is seeking to rebuild on a portion of its 100-acre property after a weekend fire consumed its storage facility. The estimated losses were put at $2 million.
From Route 20 A - Big Tree Road in Wales, the HayLoft in the Grove wedding venue looks fine. However, its large storage building is now just melted, twisted rubble.
Fortunately for concerned brides and other vendors, the beloved barn, stables, and outdoor gathering sites were not affected. Co-Owner Jeni Burford told 2 On Your Side, "The wedding venue - the Hayloft as we call it - that is intact. Still up and standing, it's perfect and we're ready to have weddings starting in May."
But again the now gutted storage structure, with expensive bathroom trailers and other cherished vehicles stored inside, was destroyed by the swift-moving flames on Saturday evening.
"We had a really nice hay wagon ride in there. It was custom made for us and we were searching to try and find a hay wagon so we could take our brides and our couples and our guests here for hayrides. And then we had classic cars in there, a couple of Harley motorcycles, and BMW's in there."
About 100 firefighters and other EMS staff from Wales Center and other area fire departments responded. But Burford says the building went up fast.
"They had to get a big excavator and they had to peel the metal siding off so they could get to all the things on fire in there and smoldering."
While firefighters were trying to deal with the intensity of the blaze which melted parts of the building and the contents, they also had to deal with the weather conditions. It was three degrees that night with a windchill.
And without public water or nearby hydrants, fire crews had to improvise. Burford explains, "They built like a big pool outside of our property. Right on the road. And the fire trucks would just come up and they would dump all their water in there. And then they would keep moving on. It was like a big assembly line. And they were taking all the water hoses up there but the water hoses were freezing."
Most importantly there were no injuries with the fire. The cause is still under investigation.
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