Sunday fire destroys the Lone Oak office

NORTH CANAAN — A fire on Sunday morning, Feb. 5, destroyed the 50-year-old office building at the Lone Oak Campsite. Firefighters were able to stop the blaze before it destroyed the newer section, built in 1986, that houses the store, the nightclub and the recreation area.

Barry Brown, a co-owner of the campsite with his brother Peter, praised the firefighters for their quick response. 

Former Canaan Fire Company Chief Charlie Perotti said that luck played a part; a group of firefighters happened to be in the firehouse on Sunday morning, doing a pre-plan for what might happen if a fire were to start in the center of town.

A pre-plan had been done for the campsites, too, so the fire volunteers were able to swing into action quickly, draining water from the iced-over pond behind the office buildings and working aggressively to stop the blaze from spreading.

Brown made the first 911 call at about 9:45 a.m. His cousin, Amanda Freund, lives on the nearby Freund’s Farm and had texted him to say she saw black smoke rising from the campsites. 

Brown also lives nearby, and raced over to the property by car after calling 911. 

“The firefighters were there in about five  minutes,” he said. 

Volunteers came from North Canaan, Norfolk, Lakeville and Falls Village in Connecticut and Sheffield and New Marlborough in Massachusetts, according to fire company public information officer Jonathan Barbagallo.

“On our first arrival, that whole section of the building was already fully involved,” Barbagallo said. “The wing is pretty big and it posed a lot of challenges. The biggest challenge was to prevent it from spreading to the main building, which we were successful in doing.”

Although the temperatures were relatively mild, the water from the fire hoses iced up quickly and some of the firefighters, dressed in their unwieldy turnout gear, slipped on the slick surface.

“The bulk of the fire was out within an hour,” Barbagallo said, “but the firefighters were still there looking for hot spots until 2:30 or 3 p.m. I believe the last North Canaan firefighters left at about 4 p.m.”

No cause has been determined for the fire yet. Because of the extent of the damage, it’s possible that the state and local fire marshals will not be able to figure out exactly what happened. One theory is that it was an electrical fire.

“That wing will have to be demolished and rebuilt,” Barbagallo said. “But the main building was saved,they’ll be able to repair it. It was a great stop by the fire departments that were there.”

The campsite is closed for the season, but Brown said that there are still seven employees plus himself, his wife, Jacolyn, his brother and his nephew, Cooper Brown, who work Monday through Friday at the campground. 

Lone Oak is a family business, started by Barry and Peter’s father, Abraham “Bucky” Brown, in 1964. It was one of three campsites started in Connecticut that year.

“He was definitely a pioneer in the industry,” Brown said.
Lone Oak was one of the first camps of its kind in the state.

Brown also owned a dairy farm across the street; in all, he had 150 acres. He began with 50 sites that he would rent out to vacationers with recreational vehicles. The campsites caught on quickly and within two years “he sold the cows and went into camping full time,” his son said.

Lone Oak now includes 250 acres and has 469 campsites. Campers come from all over the world, but most live within an hour’s drive, Barry Brown said. 

“Half of them are seasonal campers, which means they leave their camper on the site and pay for the whole season, so they don’t have to keep hooking up the camper and driving it here. They use it like a second home.”

There are also rental vehicles and cabins available.

Families return year after year, and there is a strong sense of community at the campground. There is a swimming pool and a pond for fishing; there are themed activities and entertainment in the evening.

The section of the building that burned is the main office, which was built in 1966 and renovated several times over the years. Brown said that some of the older paper records were destroyed but that Lone Oak had moved to a “cloud-based” computer system three years ago so most of the customer information can still be accessed.

Brown estimated that it will take all summer to build a new office, and he said it’s possible that it will be in a different location. 

“It might make more sense to put it at the entrance to the campground,” he speculated.

Brown and his family praised the firefighters who came out to help and also thanked the community for all the support and encouragement they’ve received since Sunday.