Tractors destroyed in hoop barn fire
Multiple departments respond to rural blaze
EVANSTON — A couple of classic International Harvesters were the only casualties of a fire that broke out in a hoop barn Monday evening between Duncombe and Lehigh.
No humans or animals were harmed in the fire, reported around 5:30 p.m. at 2608 255th St.
Some hay bales also burned in the blaze.
The tractors were an IH 706 and a 1486, said the owner Roger Smith.
“I’ve had both of them quite a while,” he said.
“I was glad when the fire department got here,” Smith went on. “I thought the whole shed was going to go. Flames were coming out the top.”
The two tractors were a total loss, said Lehigh Fire Chief Aaron Morriss, and a planter next to them is likely ruined as well.
They were able to save three combines that were at the other end of the structure, Smith said.
“They had started up this bigger tractor,” Morriss said. “And I think they just let it run. I’m not sure of the cause right now.”
Lehigh, Duncombe, Otho and Dayton fire departments responded.
When he got to the farm, Morriss said there was heavy smoke coming from the structure.
“We pulled two 1 1/2 inch cross lays, and started to attack the building, and had the farmer take hay bales out with a tractor,” Morriss said.
Firefighters were beginning to wrap things up by 6:40 p.m.