| Fire consumes barn |
By: Corey Butler Jr.
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Posted: Wednesday, February 3, 2010 1:25 am
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Fire crews from Kenyon, Faribault and Medford monitor a blaze in a barn on the Bauer family property southwest of Kenyon. Sparks kept reigniting the barn’s supply of hay, leading firefighters to decide going into the facility would be needlessly dangero
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RICHLAND TOWNSHIP — Haven Bauer is a dejected man.
So is his grandson, Austin.
Bauer had 40 years invested in a barn that burned down Thursday at his farm in Richland Township. Austin had 40 goats displaced with the blaze.
The two had come together in the previous years to spearhead an effort that positioned Austin as a premier goat breeder in the area.
Austin, at the young age of 15, is at the command of 130 goats he shows locally and regionally.
It was about noon Thursday when Austin was called at Kenyon-Wanamigo High School and learned of the fire that had started about a half an hour earlier at his grandfather’s hobby farm.
When he arrived, he saw his grandfather and father, Troter, frantically moving the goats — Austin’s life for the last two years — out of the barn.
The Kenyon Fire Department, which had called the Faribault and Medford fire departments for backup, ultimately decided to let the blaze take the barn.
“They went with the intent to put it out,” said Todd Angelstad, the Kenyon fire chief. “We put a lot of water on the upstairs. The floor was already weak.”
The barn was filled with a lot of hay and straw, which Angelstad said made it impossible to put out. He said the hay kept re-igniting because of coals.
He said under the circumstances, he couldn’t justify sending his firefighters into the barn to throw hay out to help mitigate the fire.
Bauer, 68, slept for the first time Sunday night. The loss has been debilitating.
“I built it all myself,” he said of the original 32 foot by 50 foot structure. “It’s kind of heartbreaking. It was a good building.”
Few things were salvaged.
One kid — a young goat — of the herd perished in the fire, as did 13 chickens. Since the blaze, three more kids and one doe — female adult goat — died. The doe was pregnant with three kids, Bauer said.
“That barn is everything I’ve done in the last two years,” said Austin. “It’s all been invested in my goat project.”
The 120-acre hobby farm, which is used for crops and the goats, had three buildings housing the goats.
The barn that burned down was the kidding barn, where all the does were to give birth. It held 23 does and 17 kids at the time of the fire.
Friends and family were quick to help house the displaced goats on their farms.
Austin knows the goats can be replaced.
The barn, on the other hand, is a complete loss.
Bauer estimates he’s out $50,000 because of the blaze. The family had recently converted it from a cattle barn to house goats. It was also re-shingled last summer.
The cause of the fire hasn’t been determined, though Bauer said he believes faulty wiring in the top of the barn sparked the fire.
He said he can take some solace in knowing because the fire started at the top of the barn, it allowed him and others to save his grandson’s goats.
All the goats are expected to be back on the farm in the next two months, Bauer said. The family has already started making room in the other two buildings.
Bauer, who still works construction and is planning to ease into retirement by making his grandson’s ambition his hobby, said rebuilding is a must.
Though, it will be smaller and built to the need of the goats.
Bauer said it will help harness the motivation Austin has for breeding.
“The younger people don’t get a chance to learn things (always),” he said. “It gives him a chance.”
— Reporter Corey Butler Jr. may be reached at 789-6161 or 333-3148. |
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