LIVERMORE – Volunteers were salvaging farm and animal equipment and tools, and even two interpreters’ dresses, Wednesday from the charred remains of the barn and farmer’s cottage at the Washburn-Norlands Living History Center.

A fire destroyed the two buildings attached to the Norland’s mansion and big kitchen on April 28. A heat lamp set up to warm a sow and piglets ignited the blaze. A sow, 18 piglets and some chickens perished in the blaze. All of the cattle and sheep survived.

On Wednesday, an excavator jaw clamped debris together and lifted it to a waiting dump truck. Every once and while the driver from Castonguay Excavating and Logging snagged a remnant and held it out for a volunteer to grab. It was put in a growing pile near the gift shop/office.

This time it was a bridle for a horse.

Barbara Cook of Jay knelt in the dirt in the midst of the debris in front of where the farmer’s cottage had stood and used a spoon and her hands to dig out herbs from the remainder of a garden there.

Cook and other volunteers, Mary Castonguay of Livermore and Shelley Cox of Rumford, started looking to see if any herbs survived and found some green sprouts once they looked closely.

“Essentially we are on the way to rebuilding,” trustee board President Kathleen Beauregard said Wednesday. “The board is committed to rebuild both the barn and farmer’s cottage and educational programs. That’s where the programs were held. We have some excellent people helping us.”

There was little damage to the mansion kitchen, which was located beneath the caretaker’s quarters, she said. The latter had some water damage, she added.

A lot of interior plaster has been removed there, she said.

“We saved the tin ceiling in the kitchen,” something made possible by the professional workers involved, Beauregard said.

A temporary electric service has been installed for construction workers to use but phone lines were still a problem Wednesday morning. They hoped to have that remedied soon.

There is also some running water in the building and heat, and the roof is water tight, she added.

Roof timbers above the caretaker’s quarters are heavily charred and will need to be replaced soon, she said. Firefighters vented the flames through an attic crawl space above the quarters.

The mansion had water damage in some of the ceiling and smoke damage throughout, Beauregard said.

“We don’t know the full damage yet,” she added. “Of course (Wednesday) is just a little over a week from the fire. We’re carefully removing the debris to a safe location and we’ll salvage everything we can.”

Some groups contacted trustees and are planning fundraisers to help with rebuilding and replacing needed items.

The property was insured, Beauregard said, but there are some reconstruction elements and other components that could be addressed with additional funds.

“This is an opportunity to, in addition to replacing what was lost here in terms of buildings, pigs, artifacts, teaching materials, to rebuild the whole of Norlands,” she said. “So fundraisers can really help us address all the details to bring the buildings back to what they were and to make improvements that were needed such as windows and exterior painting. During reconstruction, there’re always behind-the-scenes expenses that come up that the community can help us with, including feeding volunteers and safety supplies.”

The plan is to reconstruct replicas of the buildings lost.

“We’re looking forward to a barn-raising,” she said, but isn’t sure when that will happen.

“I’ll be putting together a design team to work an architectural plan,” Beauregard said.

In the meantime, the cattle is being boarded at Norlands’ former historical farmer Ray Fleury’s farm in Jay.

The sheep were given to a Fayette family who plan to raise them in a 4-H program.

Fire Chief Don Castonguay saw some smoke rising from the rubble of the barn basement and decided it needed to be wet down.

“I don’t want to be chasing a grass fire,” he said before firefighter Jake Letendre soaked the debris.