The call came into the St. Claude Fire Department Monday morning, regarding a dairy barn fire near Haywood that was going to need a joint effort to battle the blaze.
Elm Creek Fire Chief Anton Borst described what happened.
"The call about 11:30 in the morning and when we arrived on scene, one end of the structure was very involved, and it was in the attic. We stayed there. When I left at 10:00 PM or 9:30, we still had a few people on site just monitoring hotspots and stuff like that. But most of the barn burned down except for the calf section. We managed to save that."
While the rest of the dairy barn was a complete loss, not all was lost, according to Borst.
"Almost all the animals were saved. Exact losses are not known yet, but estimated probably around 10 to a dozen animals lost, but probably 400 saved. They managed to get them out. The farmer and his employees are also working very hard at getting those animals out even before the fire department arrived on the scene. As soon as they detected the fire and they knew was serious, they started letting the animals out."
Borst said there was a good indication of where the fire started.
"It started with a piece of machinery in the back of the barn, a piece of that's called a Bale Buster. It chops up straw bales. It's (the cause of the fire) still under investigation to be verified, but that's likely where it started around that machine. So, it started at the end of the barn, but it got into the attic before the fire department got there."
Borst did point out some positives that came out of this tragedy.
"It was good cooperation by the fire departments and also the local neighborhood. Lots of people came to help me move the cattle and stuff like that. They (cattle) all went to different dairy farms where they could be taken care of. So, just great cooperation from the dairy community, the local community, and the different fire departments. So that way, it was a very positive experience even though obviously the farm suffered a tremendous loss."
*With files from Candace Derksen*