County fire service fights barn fire on Cannon Road near Hilton and Chapin

Hilton, SC (Paul Kirby) – Lexington County firefighters were assisted by crews from the Columbia-Richland Fire service, and the Irmo Fire District with a barn fire in the 400 block of Cannon Road near the small community of Hilton, just southeast of Chapin Wednesday near noon. Although the structure is in Lexington County, it is close to areas where Lexington and Richland Counties run close to one another.

Crews from Lexington County’s Crossroads station were closest to the scene. The personnel on the first responding trucks reported seeing heavy smoke in the sky even before they arrived on location. Callers who were dialing 911 described the building as a larger barn and told operators that they thought there might be horses trapped inside.

First due firefighter reported they had flames and smoke showing on arrival. They pulled their hoses and began to attack the fire as best they could until more personnel and equipment could arrive to back them up. The crew from Ladder 11 out of Chapin, and personnel from Richland County were next to pull up and quickly began to support the efforts of the teams already on the attack.

Firefighters and equipment from both counties rushed to the isolated area to throw themselves into the effort to fight the blaze. Water tankers came from as far away as the Lake Murray station on Hwy 378 west of Lexington and other stations across the northern and central parts of the Lexington County and northwestern Richland County. These were needed because fire hydrants were too far away to hook supply lines directly to them.

Harrison Cayhill, spokesman for Lexington County, described the structure as a large shed that had hay and horse tack stored in it. He said that although some of those items were destroyed, no horses or people were injured in the fire. The fire service has estimated that the loss to the property was approximately $15,000.

Cayhill said that although the exact cause of the fire hasn’t been determined, investigators believe that the fire may have been started by a heating source that was in the building. They are continuing to look into its cause.