Suspicious fire destroys part of former agricultural college in Huron County

A former agricultural college in Huron Park was levelled by fire over the weekend – CTV London’s Scott Miller was on the scene.

A part of Huron County’s history went up in flames this weekend. Part of the former Centralia College campus in Huron Park was levelled by a suspicious fire, which started around 5 a.m. Sunday.

“We initially responded with our two stations from Exeter and Dashwood. On the road, we could see the large glow, so we started our mutual aid partners in Lucan and Bluewater, and we’ve got North Huron and their ladder truck in here assisting with our ladder truck to get this flooded down,” said South Huron Fire Chief Jeremy Becker. “We also have an excavator in here helping us tear it apart so that we can actually safely work and get it put out.”

About 75 firefighters from seven separate stations got the fire under control by mid-morning, but the damage had been done by that point. Centralia College’s former main building is now a pile of rubble.

“This building behind me was the cafeteria. The lower part was a bar at one time, with the dorms to our west. We saved them. We had the excavator separate the buildings for us, so we’d have no extension into the actual dormitory portion of this building,” said Becker.

For more than 30 years, Centralia College had a large campus in Huron Park, teaching primarily agricultural programs. The college closed in 1994, and the buildings have sat largely vacant ever since.

“This building’s been vacant for a long time. And there’s been some, you know, construction and some work going on in some of these buildings, but vacant as far as we know. So we’re not really sure what, or if someone was in it, or what happened, but that’s what we’ll be investigating,” said Becker.

With no heat or electricity to the building, Becker said this fire was likely either accidentally or intentionally set by someone.

“Definitely considered suspicious. Like I said, there’s no services to the building. Fires just don’t start on their own,” he said.

Because the former Centralia College complex is vacant, none of the roads leading to them were plowed following Saturday night’s snowfall, which made even getting to the flames a challenge, said Becker.

If that weren’t enough, shortly after connecting to the water hydrants, the water main broke, meaning fire crews had to truck in water from Exeter all day long.

“We did have a water main break here in the industrial park, so we are shuttling water. And we’re relay pumping from our water tower site just next door to here,” said Becker.

Fire officials don’t believe anyone was injured in the blaze.

Now that the excavator has torn down parts of the building, Becker said they may never know exactly what started the blaze, but the cause will remain as “suspicious.”