FARMINGDALE — More than a dozen goats died Wednesday night when fire swept through a Northern Avenue barn and threatened a nearby home.

Farmingdale Fire Chief Dana Mealey said no people were injured by the fire at 158 Northern Ave., but the large barn was destroyed.

“It had 14 goats inside,” Mealey said. “I believe they all perished.”

Mealey described the one-story barn, owned by Deborah Sullivan, as a converted garage roughly 40 by 30 feet in size and was only a few feet from the house. The fire spread from the barn to the house and burned a portion of the soffit, part of a door and a small section of the back wall.

“It did catch the back corner of the house on fire, but we got there in time before it got into the house,” Mealey said.

There were roughly a half dozen dogs in a pen in front of the barn and another four in the house.

“I’m not aware of any dogs that were hurt,” Mealey said.

Mealey is unsure how the fire started. An investigator from the State Fire Marshal’s Office was expected to arrive today. Mealey said the only power to the barn was supplied by an extension cord.

“We thought it might be suspicious,” he said. “There wasn’t a lot of power out there.”

The fire broke out shortly before 10 p.m., and had spread throughout the barn by the time firefighters arrived.

Up to 50 firefighters from Farmingdale, Randolph, Pittston, Hallowell, Gardiner and West Gardiner eventually responded to help quell the fire.

Mealey said crews focused their attention on saving the house.

“It was a good stop,” Mealey said. “We got there just in a nick of time. If it had been another couple of minutes, it would have been a different story.”