PARIS — An improperly installed funnel for a wood-burning boiler is the suspected cause of a fire that destroyed a barn at 281 Brett Hill Road, fire Chief Brad Frost said Thursday.

The chief also credited the availability of a daytime crew with saving the nearby two-story house of Michael and Lori Gallan and their children Wednesday afternoon.

“If there was no day crew, the house would have ignited,” Frost said. It was 20 to 30 feet from the barn.

Michael Gallan discovered the fire when he arrived home for lunch shortly after noon, Frost said. Inside it were a newly registered dump truck, bales of hay, tools and woodworking implements. All were destroyed, as well as 20 cords of wood stacked behind the barn, Frost said.

Frost said it appeared from the initial investigation that the funnel from the wood-burning boiler inside the barn did not have enough space around it when it was installed through the floor of the barn loft about six years ago. The loft floor had dried out, causing it to combust, he said.

“It was a hell of a nice barn,” he said. The building and contents were insured, he said, but an estimate on the loss had not been determined, he said.

Gallan’s saw mill some distance away was not damaged.

And although one side of the Gallan’s house was blackened from the blaze, the immediate response by on-duty Paris firefighters saved it from burning, the chief said. Their availability cut the response time by about 15 minutes.

They were joined by firefighters from Norway, Oxford, Hebron and Buckfield in the effort, which required shuttling water from 2½  miles away.

In 2010, Paris voters approved hiring per diem firefighters because of concerns about inadequate coverage on weekdays. The arrangement allows Frost to have three certified firefighters at the station from 6:30 a.m. to 5:30  p.m. Without them, he said, it would be questionable whether he could get four firefighters out from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., when many volunteers are at their jobs and out of the area.

“I can think of at least three saves (at structure fires) I’ve had because I had a crew here,” he said.

He has said that station coverage is not an issue during nights and weekends.

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