Twelve fire companies responded to a three alarm blaze at 8538 Rt. 237 in Stafford on Saturday afternoon for a snowmobile on fire inside of a barn. No one was injured in the massive fire that destroyed two historical barns that have been in the Branton family for a long time.
In June of 2015, Chad Branton proposed to his wife Savannah by painting a “Will You Marry Me” sign on the second barn, it has remained there for the past five years as a reminder of that wonderful day.
Savannah says Chad went into the barn to start the snowmobile about 3:30p.m. Next thing she says she received a text about a 9-1-1 call from a phone in the barn about a fire.
Chad then emerged from the barn yelling to get the kids and the dogs out of the house. Savannah brought her three children to her mother’s house and put the dogs in her pickup.
Savannah says that everything happened so fast. Chad told her that the snowmobile backfired and started some hay on fire.
She says they were lucky the wind was blowing the flames in the opposite direction of their home today or it may have caught fire also.
Firefighters were able to save the third barn from the huge wall of fire. With the help of Chad and his excavator, the firefighters created a fire break by sacrificing one of the other buildings. That prevented the third barn from going up in flames, according to Tim Yaeger, Genesee County Fire Coordinator.
Fire crews were on scene until about 10:15p.m. Saturday.