SYCAMORE — Emergency crews battled windy conditions as they responded to a barn fire in rural Sycamore on Tuesday morning.
At approximately 6 a.m., multiple fire departments responded to the 1012 Benton Road to a fire in a metal barn.
The property’s owner, Connie Schifer, said evidence of mice chewing through wires later was found, and is now a primary expected cause.
Another of the farm’s residents said he noticed a heater in his house was blowing cold air Tuesday morning and went out to the wood burner near the barn and noticed the smoke coming out of the building.
He said he initially thought it was steam from a blown boiler, as water lines run into the barn before going into the house, but when he opened the barn’s door, he saw a flash of fire and shut the door and called the fire department. He moved a horse on the property from a nearby structure to a pen further from the barn.
Lykens Township Volunteer Fire Department Chief Brad Schafer said the cause of the fire is unknown at this time, but flames were seen in the back corner of the barn.
Schafer said responding departments hit the flame at once from multiple angles to prevent a flash-up.
“Being a steel structure saved it,” Schafer said.
Items inside the barn were melted including what is expected to be minor melting damage to a tractor inside the building, as lenses on the tractor were melted but its tires were intact.
“It was extremely hot in the building,” Schafer said. “There is some damage to items along the wall near where the flames were.”
Schafer said he does not expect the building to be considered a total loss.
Holmes Township Volunteer Fire Department, Chatfield Township Volunteer Fire Department, Sycamore Fire and Rescue, the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office and Portsmouth Emergency Ambulance Service also responded to the scene.