But if you see flames, call 911. According to Montgomery County, tobacco farmers in their area have been growing, harvesting, and curing tobacco for over a century.

As the tobacco harvest has gotten into full swing, people may see smoke coming out of the top of barns. "Tobacco curing, it's an art really," Tanner Pritchett said.

Like many old rural buildings, tobacco curing barns often are left to collapse from old age. But unlike other old barns, tobacco barns also represent a business and a way of life that shaped ...

Sometimes that can be tricky to navigate, but especially right now, during tobacco curing season. "It’s very tricky, but fortunately we have had enough [volunteers] come in," said Tucker.

The barn is not on fire. The smoke you see is a byproduct of the tobacco curing process. For over a century, tobacco farmers in our area have been growing, harvesting and curing tobacco.

"Farmers need to understand that tobacco is highly flammable. Fires typically start at the firebox inside the barn during the midrib fixing period, where excessive heat is applied for curing.

It is places like curing barns – hot, sweaty, enclosed, and surrounded by tobacco – where people get really sick. His 17-year-old son, he added, has also vomited while working with tobacco.

WINDSOR LOCKS -- More than 100 firefighters battled a blaze that has destroyed several tobacco curing sheds in Windsor Locks on Monday. The fire broke out at one of the hulking barns on Rainbow ...

Barns eligible for grant funding must be tobacco curing or those that can be proved to have been used during processing. They also must be at least 50 years old, or have historical and/or ...

At its meeting on March 6, the Windsor Town Council approved the leasing of tobacco barns at Northwest Park to the Connecticut Valley Tobacco Historical Society.