'I can't put it into words': Family loses 80-year-old barn in act of arson; 3 arrested
Since the late 1940s, generations of Worleys have spent their childhoods climbing on bales of hay and tending to goats in the chestnut barn perched on the family property in Leicester.
The next generation, however, won’t have the opportunity to soak in the history of the 80-year-old barn.
On Nov. 3, it was burned to the ground in what investigators say was an act of arson.
Buncombe County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a barn fire on Worley Cove Road, as well as three others in Leicester and Sandy Mush, around 6:30 a.m. Nov. 3, according to police documents. The other barns up in flames were on Old Newfound, Gilbert and Mailon King roads.
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Craig Worley has lived on the property off Worley Cove Road — named after his great grandfather — his entire life. For 68 years, he's cherished the barn framed by North Buncombe County's mountainous terrain.
Worley, whose phone was ringing off the hook the morning of the blaze, said from his window he could see the barn was engulfed in flames.
“I had three or four telephone calls,” Worley said. “The telephone woke me up, and when I looked out the window, I didn’t answer them. I knew I had to get down there as quick as I could.”
Worley rushed to rescue the four goats and two chickens that slept in the barn. By the time he was near the fire, he knew he couldn’t go any closer due to the raging flames.
Luckily, the animals had escaped and were hiding behind the nearby silo.
Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Aaron Sarver said no humans or animals were injured in any of the fires.
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The next thing Worley heard was a scream — from his 8-year-old granddaughter who lives with her parents in a trailer near the barn.
“If you could have heard my little granddaughter screaming that morning, scared for her life, you would understand it,” he said.
Worley’s granddaughter, daughter and son-in-law went to safety inside Worley’s home while firefighters doused the flames ravaging the decades-old barn that held a tractor, trailer and plowers. Damage to Worley’s barn was more than $239,000.
Total damage of all four of the burned barns was more than $1 million, Sarver said.
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On Nov. 16, the Sheriff’s Community Enforcement Team arrested three people accused of starting the fires Nov. 3.
Blake Cameron Williams, 21, and Ashley Debra Neal, 26, both of Leicester, and Anthony Dwayne Boyd, 20, of Canton, have each been charged with five felony counts of conspiracy, burning personal property and burning certain buildings.
They were booked in the Buncombe County jail Nov. 16 and are being held on $150,055 bonds. Their court dates were not immediately available.
“I hope our community members will now have some sense of safety restored despite their losses,” Buncombe County Sheriff Quentin Miller said in a statement.
Worley said he knows the people charged with the crimes, but doesn’t know why they burned the barn.
“When I was 15 or 16 years old, that’s how I made my money — with a horse to plant people’s tobacco patches," he said.
While he feels better knowing they’ve been arrested, Worley said nothing could soothe the pain of losing a timeless building crafted at the hands of his family.
“You get to thinking about what your dad worked all his life for, what some of your kin worked all their lives for, and I’ve got mixed emotions,” he said. “The first two or three days, I wasn't able to talk to anybody. It's just hard to explain. I can't put it into words.”
Shelby Harris is a reporter covering breaking news, education and other topics. She can be reached at sharris@citizentimes.com or on Twitter @_shelbyharris.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: 3 charged after Nov. 3 arson that destroyed 4 Buncombe County barns
