Fire near Sebastopol destroys pair of 100-year-old chicken barns

Firefighters made quick work Tuesday of a fire near Sebastopol that destroyed two 100-year-old redwood chicken barns, according to a fire official.

Five agencies responded to the 4 p.m. blaze on the 5000 block of Hessel Road, and had it extinguished in half an hour, said Gold Ridge Fire Protection District Battalion Chief Gino Degraffenreid.

The barns were being used for storage, and contained no chickens.

Though it took Gold Ridge units just four minutes to arrive on the scene 5 miles southeast of Sebastopol, they had no chance to save the buildings, which were already engulfed.

“It was all about preserving what was not yet on fire,” said Degraffenreid, who expressed relief that the grass and vegetation on the property was still relatively green.

“Had this occurred in June or July,” he said, “it would have been a very different fire.”

Units from Rancho Adobe, Graton, North Bay Fire and the Sonoma County Fire District helped contain the blaze.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

You can reach Staff Writer Austin Murphy at 707-521-5214 or austin.murphy@pressdemocrat.com.