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Belledune farmer Hubert Duivenvoorden is trying to pick up the pieces after a barn collapse killed 14 of his cows.

On March 9, part of Mr. Duivenvoorden’s barn collapsed, killing several of the dairy cows that were inside. The collapse was due to heavy snow which had come to a head with a winter storm the previous night.

Thankfully, Mr. Duivenvoorden said no people were hurt but the accident has left him with a financial loss.

“It’s not going to cost that much to replace the building, once the weather allows it, but it’s the lost income from those 14 animals and possibly more that’s going to affect me more.

It was not a pretty sight.”

Mr. Duivenvoorden, 54, said the community was a great help in closing off the rest of the barn so the other cows and water piping would not freeze from the cold winter air. He said people he hadn’t even met before were at his barn within hours of the accident.

“You can’t function in the barn when it’s freezing all the water lines and stuff like this.

It had to be closed in, so first we removed part of the debris,” said Mr. Duivenvoorden.

“Snow had to be removed because there was four or five feet of snow before we could get at the dead and injured animals.

Continued Mr. Duivenvoorden:“ We had many people from the village helping us shovel snow. My wife had called the volunteer fire department and they had brought a lot of people.

I called a lot of people that had worked for me...There were even complete strangers, people I didn’t know, that helped out.”

He said he and his two brothers Jack and William were able to close off part of the barn with tarps and lumber from the collapse.

Mr. Duivenvoorden said it’s just a temporary fix for now and he hopes to have the barn upgraded by May.

“We closed it off so at least the rest of the herd wouldn’t be exposed to the weather,”he said noting that more than 110 milking cows were in that section of the barn.

“Hopefully, we can have it fixed by May.”

Mr. Duivenvoorden said the barn roof hadn’t been shoveled off in the past because it’s a high building and it’s difficult to get at. He didn’t think the roof would collapse but he did note there were subtle warning signs that the structure was not 100 per cent.

“The doorway wasn’t working properly and the door wouldn’t shut and things like that. When I had heard this last storm was supposed to hit, the day before it happened I went and did some shoveling but obviously not enough. It had never been necessary in the past to shovel there but this winter has been unusual with how much snow we’re getting,” said Mr.

Duivenvoorden.

“Since it happened, we have gotten a crew together and shoveled off all the remaining part of that barn and parts of the other barn that looked like they might be at risk...It never got done before but it’s going to have to get done in the future if we keep getting this much snow,”he concluded.