To Troy Fire Chief Bobby Jacobs, what happened over the Missisquoi River last Saturday was a freak accident.
The River Road Covered Bridge — the only one left in town — caught fire that morning when a crossing snowmobile stalled, began puffing smoke and burst into flames.
Firefighters knocked down most of the blaze within 20 minutes, but the bridge’s beams gave out. The 121-year-old structure collapsed in the frozen river, a total loss.
With it went a cherished piece of the Orleans County town’s history.
“The covered bridge was a staple to the town of Troy,” Jacobs said Tuesday. “People came from miles and miles away to see it, take pictures. A lot of locals — kids took senior pictures at the bridge. … It’s a tragedy, for sure.”
The barn red, 94-foot-long bridge was built in 1910, a few miles south of North Troy village to the east of State Route 101. It linked Veilleux and River roads.
It was among the few covered bridges in Vermont to use external lateral bracing, according to the Vermont Covered Bridge Society. Of the bridges built in the “Town’s lattice truss style,” it was the only bridge in the state to use just one treenail — a wooden pin — to hold together the criss-cross planks.
The covered bridge was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
Workers rehabilitated the old bridge between 2007 and 2008, stabilizing the structure, replacing pieces and treating it with fire retardant.
Those efforts didn’t matter last weekend.
About 11 a.m. Saturday, the Troy Fire Department responded to a fire call, according to the Vermont State Police.
Four snowmobilers had been riding across the bridge when the last vehicle in line suddenly broke down. The rider was about 20 feet into the structure, said Jacobs, the local fire chief. When the rider inspected his machine to figure out what was wrong, he noticed smoke and flames coming out of the right-hand side of the snowmobile, the chief said.
The rider started grabbing snow from outside the bridge to try to put out the fire, but it was no use.
“The fire grew too quick and too fast on him,” Jacobs said.
When firefighters arrived with two fire engines, the wooden bridge was fully engulfed in flames. “We had heavy fire coming out both ends of the bridge,” Jacobs said.
The local department called for help from the departments in Jay and North Troy, and state police fire investigators later arrived, too. Firefighters extinguished most of the blaze, but it had eaten away at the building’s support structure, and the bridge crashed down. No one was injured, Jacobs said.
“We hear of freak accidents, things that happen, and I do honestly think this was just one of those freak accidents,” he said.
Robert Langlands, chair of the Troy Selectboard, said Tuesday the community lost part of its identity.
“Naturally, I think the whole town is with me; we’re saddened by the loss of that bridge,” he said, adding, “It’s not a landmark we want to lose.”
The bridge wasn’t crucial to travel around town, the chair said, but it saw traffic often.
“It’s right next to a swimming hole, it’s right next to where people go fishing, it’s part of the VAST trail — it’s a well-used bridge,” he said.
Langlands said the town had arranged for cranes to set up along the river Tuesday to begin removing the debris. Town insurance is covering the removal and clean up for about $56,000, he said, and will also pay for a temporary bridge provided by the state. He wasn’t sure how much the short-term replacement would cost.
“Then we’re going to look into the possibilities of what we can do to replace” the bridge, he said.
The selectboard chair appreciates the outpouring of support in the wake of the bridge’s collapse.
“We’ve had a lot of offers from organizations,” he said, including the
Vermont Association of Snow Travelers.
The Missisquoi River is part of the federal National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, and Langlands hopes the program can help, too.
“It’s nice to see people coming together,” he said.
