Syrup production sparks roof fire on Wellesley farm

A hot chimney is to blame for a fire that burned a hole in the roof of a farm outbuilding in Wellesley township on Monday.

The property owners were boiling maple syrup in a small evaporating system when the roof around the stove pipe caught fire, according to Frank Karley, the township's deputy chief of operations.

Three volunteer firefighting crews responded to the fire at around 10:00 a.m., arriving on the scene to find small flames coming from the roof of the outbuilding.

"Crews quickly pulled some lines off the fire truck and extinguished the fire," Karley said. "It didn't take long to put out the fire, but we had to make sure there was no extension into the rest of the building."

Crews left the scene two-and-a-half hours later and Karley said all the remains is for a fire prevention officer and the fire chief to perform a final inspection.

Although he said the department has a good indication of why the hot chimney sparked a roof fire, he wasn't prepared to release those details.

Karley estimates the fire caused $5,000 in damages.