High winds forced flames through a barn in Jackson Township Monday afternoon.
The barn at 8505 W. CR 592 was owned by Todd Bowers, said Bob Dible, chief of Kansas Fire Department. The fire was reported around 12:15 p.m. Monday.
"It is an older large barn," he said. "They used to house animals in there."
Article Photos
PHOTO BY JILL GOSCHE
Flames shoot and smoke pours from a barn at 8505 W. CR 592 Monday afternoon.
Dible said he did not know the fire's cause or where it started in the barn. He also did not have a damage estimate but said the barn was a loss. The building contained a boat and woodworking equipment, he said.
"It's all destroyed," he said.
Dible said the barn already had fallen when firefighters arrived at the scene. Flames were coming out of windows, doors, all sides and the top of the barn. The 50-mph wind caused the entire barn to be engulfed in flames, he said.
Fact Box
Tiffin was under a wind advisory Monday. Wind gusts throughout the area measured more than 35 mph.
A wind gust from the southwest was measured at 37 mph at a weather station at Tiffin Middle School, according to www.weatherbug.com.
The weather station at St. Wendelin Catholic School recorded a wind gust from the south at 35 mph Monday, while the station at Fostoria High School recorded a wind gust from the west at 51 mph, according to the website.
Winds are to subside today and Wednesday.
National Weather Service's Cleveland office predicted a west wind between 9 and 16 mph overnight, with a west wind between 6 and 13 mph today. Winds are to be between 6 and 8 mph tonight and Wednesday, according to the service's website at www.erh.noaa.gov/cle/.
- By Jill Gosche, Staff Writer
He estimated it took firefighters an hour to get the fire under control. An excavator was called in to dig through the rubble so they could finishing extinguishing the fire.
"Underneath, it's still burning," he said around 2 p.m.
The wind forced the flames and smoke away from the house, and Dible said the house would have burned down had the wind blown toward it. The fire melted siding on the back of the house, he said.
The family was not home at the time of the fire, Dible said.
Ronald and Karen Wagner, who live just east of the barn on CR 592, said they didn't know about the fire until a man who lives in the neighborhood saw it and knocked on their door. The couple called 911 and headed outside. Karen said when they got outside, one end of the barn was gone.
"The wind was just blowing it this way," she said.
Karen said she was nervous about her own house. She recalled being able to feel the heat from the fire while she was standing on the road.
"At least they saved their house," she said.
Personnel from Bascom Joint Fire District, Kansas Fire Department, Risingsun Volunteer Fire Department, Bascom EMS, Fostoria Emergency Corps, Seneca Community Chaplain Corps and Seneca County Sheriff's Office responded to the scene of the fire.
