Fire destroys Percy family barn

The 911 call came in around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday night reporting a fully involved structure fire at the Percy farm, located at the corner of Weeks Hill and Percy Hill roads, and Reeves said it took firefighters from eight other fire departments until roughly 6 a.m. Thursday to get the fire thoroughly knocked down.

“It was really well organized,” Reeves said. “Because of the time of night, we didn’t have a lot of spectators, which was good.”

Reeves said later Thursday morning that he and his crew were working with a state fire investigator on scene, and it is unknown how the fire started.

Percy family patriarch Paul Percy was out of town, but son Ryan, who runs the family dairy farm, was able to rescue a small number of heifers, but a family member said more than 100 cows were killed.

Reeves said there was a lot of farm equipment in the barn, also considered a total loss.

In addition to the Stowe firefighters on scene, departments from eight other towns assisted in battling the blaze: Waterbury, Morristown, Hyde Park, North Hyde Park/Eden, Elmore, Wolcott, Bolton and Johnson.

“It was very good to have that support,” Reeves said.

This story is developing and will be updated with complete coverage in next week’s print edition.