Eating a sugar-covered doughnut and drinking a bottle of water, Dr. Joel Rumney sits in his black truck emblazoned with the words North Simcoe Veterinary Service and casually recalls the last 12 hours of his life.
The events that led to two barns being destroyed at his family’s property, which also includes the family home as well as a veterinary clinic and animal hospital that luckily were relatively unscathed, started some time after Rumney last tended to their horses shortly after 10 p.m. Thursday.
“There was nothing out of the ordinary,” Rumney said, adding that he was sitting at the kitchen table of the family’s adjacent heritage home when his son Matt noticed light reflecting in the window not long after he had come inside.
The pair quickly realized something was amiss and jumped into action shortly before 11 p.m., with the elder Rumney moving his work truck and a Volvo as they awaited the Tay Fire Department.
“I was only wearing my boxer shorts so figured I’d better put on some pants before the fire department arrived,” Rumney says nonchalantly, adding he was shirtless for about four hours as he watched firefighters do their thing before grabbing a sweater from the nearby clinic.
“I have no idea how it started. No idea at all.”
Fire crews arrived shortly thereafter at the Rumney Road location and only left at 8 a.m. this morning, Tay fire chief Shawn Aymer said, noting the cause has yet to be determined.
As well, the horses who live in the barn had already escaped since they are free to come and go as they please to a nearby field.
“We don’t lock animals in jail,” Rumney says. “Those people that lock horses in jail cells are crazy.”
The longtime veterinary service and animal hospital opened in 1983 and is located on land once owned by Rumney’s grandparents. It and another clinic in Midland are led by Rumney and his wife Dr. Edie Haberfellner (Rumney), who together have more than 50 years of veterinary experience. As well, their daughter Rose now works as a veterinarian in the family business.
But perhaps, even more fortunate, according to Rumney, is the fact no dogs or cats were boarding at the back of the Tay Township clinic Thursday evening. Melted recycling bins at the back show how closely the flames licked the clinic exterior.
“The house and clinic are more important,” Rumney says. “We can rebuild the barn. I already have an idea how it will look.”
Rumney says the older barn, which features a stone foundation and was built in the 1880s, actually burned down about 50 years ago.
At the time, he had just started writing final exams at the University of Guelph. He eventually rebuilt the barn himself and incorporated a larger addition using Douglas fir timber for the framing that he got from the old Port McNicoll freight sheds.
“It’s insured, we’ll find out how well,” Rumney says of the latest incident, noting he plans to rebuild what was lost, but won’t be doing the work himself this time around.
For now, however, Rumney just planned to shave, brush his teeth and get some sleep.
When his wife called earlier this morning from a family cottage in the Kawarthas and told him she had heard about what had happened and would come down right away, Rumney said he told her not to worry, “that everything was under control.”
That kind of laid-back nature and take life as it comes type of approach is evident when speaking with the easily likeable Rumney, who made sure the clinic was operating Friday since cancelling appointments wouldn't have been fair to clients.
“Yesterday was such a shit day,” Rumney says at the conversation’s end, noting things hadn’t gone smoothly prior to the fire as he worked around the farm.
“Everything that could have gone wrong, did. It (the fire) was a disaster, a horrible thing, but what can you do? That’s life. None of us are getting out of here alive."
