By Liz Chapman,Staff Writer

HARTFORD – It was deja vu all over again Sunday for John Dyke, whose sugar shack on Farrand Hill Road caught fire in exactly the same place as last year’s shack.

“It turned a good day into a bad day in a hurry,” Dyke said Sunday evening.

Dyke, who hopes to one day make a full-time living making Maine maple syrup, estimated the damage at $25,000 or more. There were no injuries.

Both last year’s fire and the one Sunday started in the stack and caught the roof on fire. But the big difference between the two fires is that the sap evaporator ran dry Sunday and was ruined, Dyke said. A new one will cost $15,000, he said.

Canton firefighters put the roof fire out carefully to minimize damage to the new shack, Dyke said, which he built to replace the old shack.

“The firefighters did a good job at not destroying anything,” he said.

Dyke did not have the shack insured, but was set to sign a new policy on Monday or Tuesday. Dyke said getting insurance is difficult and expensive because sugar shacks are considered fire hazards.

Dyke was forced to dump 250 gallons of sap, which converts to six gallons of syrup. He also lost any syrup he had in the shack in plastic bottles, as well as filters and other items that were contaminated by the smoke.

An estimated 3,000 people visited Dyke’s sugar shack Sunday as part of the annual Maine Maple Syrup Sunday. The family was shutting down the shack at about 3:30 p.m. when someone noticed sparks near the stack, Dyke said.

Mark Blanchette, Canton’s assistant fire chief, said Sunday that 15 firefighters took about one hour to clear the fire. He said the fire crew felt badly for Dyke, knowing how much time and effort he put into building a new shack.

Staff writer Terry Karkos contributed to this report.

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