D Dutchmen Dairy welcomes first calf since tragic fire

“I think it’s been amazing to watch the community give respectful space to our family as they know we’re really hurting,” said Colonna.

“We’ve had meals, so many volunteers – of course with a fire there’s not a lot you can do right away with insurance and stuff, but so many people volunteering to help out. We already have a tight-knit farm family where we have been leaning to right now, but we hear all of the people who want to volunteer and there might be a time in the future where we look for helping hands.”

Colonna said the family is not accepting any monetary donations themselves, but they will accept money to thank local firefighters.

“Our family is in the process of setting up a bank account for funds that we would like to go toward the firefighters who came to help, so our Sicamous, Malakwa and Swansea Point fire departments. They were essential in how everything went down that night,” said Colonna.

“We could have lost a lot more animals, and it’s because of these men and women that risk their lives every day.”

On the night of the fire, Colonna said she was awoken by a phone call from her mother and she rushed to the dairy to find her mother in tears and the calf barn engulfed in flames.

“She shut the door that night after feeding the calves their dinner. They were a great group of calves that she would feed every day, so there was the shock of losing all of her babies and there was nothing anyone could do,” said Colonna.

“The amazing part was seeing how the fire department didn’t allow it to spread. We should have lost our cow barn and we still don’t know how it didn’t get to the cow barn.”

On Sunday (Sept. 27), the Dairy welcomed its first new calf to the farm since the tragic fire.

“It’s a very big baby girl,” said Colonna. “It was bittersweet, but it felt very nice to say that we have another calf on the farm.”

The calf does not have a name yet, but D Dutchmen Dairy is accepting name suggestions via social media, with Colonna’s children getting the final say.

“Every single one of our cows gets a name, and we usually base it off their mother’s name. This is a baby girl out of Jenny, and it’s the start of having calves in our barn again. It’s really exciting,” said Colonna.

by Elora McCormack

D Dutchmen Dairy welcomes first calf since tragic fire

Our Community