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The arsonist who struck Ned Johnson’s farm on October 31 left a legacy of fear in a county where folks once went to sleep feeling safe and secure in their country homes, sure that the crime that blights city life was miles away. In burning the four barns, the arsonist destroyed more than farm outbuildings and a year’s hay crop. He destroyed peace of mind.
And the crime did more than hurl Ned Johnson financially. It risked the future of Sperryville.
Virginia has been choking in the grip of a drought for months now. Fields and forests are dry as tinder boxes. A single spark could send flames shooting everywhere. If the wind had picked up just a big on Halloween Night, embers from the blazing barns could have floated easily to the roofs of Sperryville. Then the danger would have been to lives as well as property.
Even with the fires confined to the four outbuildings, lives were risked.
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