Within hours of a Tuesday morning fire killed hundreds of animals at Ovis Hill Farm in Timmonsville, members of the community rallied to help owners and operators Charlie and Alice Caldwell recover.
The fire happened just after 6 a.m., Darlington County Fire District Chief David Williamson said. Firefighters from four stations responded, and, because of the weather, Timmonsville and Timmonsville/Sardis firefighters provided mutual aid.
It took two hours to bring the fire under control, Williamson said. The fire destroyed the 3,000 square-foot barn and killed 40 ewes, more than 60 lambs and several hundred chickens. The cause of the fire remains under investigation, Williamson said.
The Caldwells, who promote locally-grown food in the Pee Dee and Grand Strand, are well known throughout the region not just for their work, but also for opening up their farm to area schoolchildren for field trips and to residents for tours. A portion of the barn that was destroyed housed the farm’s education facility and supplies used for the farm’s weekly markets.
Charlie Caldwell said Ovis Hill doesn’t raise its animals in confinement; all are free-range. Birthing mothers and newly-hatched chicks are kept inside for a few days after birth before being turned out to pasture with the rest of the farm’s herd.
“I lost some really great animals,” he said.
Charlie Caldwell runs the Ovis Hill Farmers Market at Florence’s Naturally Outdoors on Thursdays and Saturdays. Even as he surveyed the damage Tuesday morning, he made telephone calls to make sure Wednesday’s market in Myrtle Beach and Thursday and Saturday’s market at Naturally Outdoors would continue as scheduled.
Meanwhile, fellow farmers such as John Rogers stepped in to help the Caldwells. Soon after the fire was extinguished, people arrived to make sure the hundreds of uninjured animals had food and water, and to ensure the farm’s electric fence was up and running once again to keep those animals safe.
“Lots of friends and neighbors showed up,” Charlie Caldwell said, “farmers that work with us in our markets, and everybody is pulling together so we don’t miss markets ... we’ll be OK.”
“They are really solid folks,” Michael Miller, a regular market shopper, said of the Caldwells. “This isn’t a setback they needed. They needed a push forward, not backward.”
A fund has been set up through the Pee Dee Community Supported Agriculture program to help the Ovis Hill farm rebuild its educational facility. For information on the fund and how to donate, e-mail PeeDeeCSA@gmail.com.
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