Fifteen fire crews responded to a barn fire in Bridgton on Dec. 8. No one was injured in the blaze. Contributed / United Ambulance- Bridgton Crew

A fire at a farm on Middle Ridge Hill Road in Bridgton on Sunday, Dec. 8, resulted in the destruction of the barn and the milking parlor, with the house sustaining smoke damage.

Glen Garland, chief of the Bridgton Fire Department, told the Lakes Region Weekly that the department received a call about a fire on Sunday at 9:33 a.m. Because of the size of the fire when firefighters arrived, Garland said he presumed the fire had started a half hour prior. The reason for the delay, he believed, was because no one was in the barn at the time the fire started, and the building was constructed in such a way that the barn could not be seen from the house.

“It was accidental in nature,” Garland said about the cause of the fire. “At this point, we’re still doing a little bit of digging, but we’re leaning towards an electrical cause.”

Crews from 15 fire departments responded to a barn fire on Sunday, Dec. 8 in Bridgton. No one was injured in the blaze. Courtesy / Casco Fire Rescue

There were no injuries, either to fire personnel or to the property owner and her four dogs, who were all able to get out of the house without issue, the fire chief said.

Fire departments from 15 towns from the Lakes Region and beyond were  on scene to contain the blaze. Many of the trucks helped haul water from a hydrant in North Bridgton Village, 2 1/2 miles away from the scene of the fire.

“When you’re hauling water over that long a distance with the size fire that we had, and the amount of water that we’re using,” Garland said, “it just takes a lot of trucks to do that, which is why we had so many towns there.”

In addition to the barn, an old milking parlor from when the property was an active dairy farm was also consumed by the fire.

A barn fire on Dec. 8 in Bridgton destroyed the structure and some adjacent buildings. No one was injured in the blaze. Casco Fire Rescue

When firefighters arrived on the scene, Garland said, they decided to use their initially limited resources to stop the fire from burning down the house, which was connected to the barn by an ell. He said that while the rear of the ell which was closest to the barn, as well as the family room sustained some fire damage, the main structure of the house survived intact.

Three vehicles, two of which were inside the barn at the time of the fire, as well as the owner’s vehicle, which was parked right outside, were lost in the blaze.

The scene was mostly cleared by 3 p.m.