A fire closed Highway 59 between Milton and Whitewater on Sunday. It also destroyed a barn that was home generations of Agnew family dairy cows.
“The family is safe. The animals were rescued, but the barn is a total loss,” said Stephanie Aegerter, one of several generations of Agnews that farmed or still farm along that stretch of highway.
Nick Sarbacker, who is married to Aegerter’s cousin Jessica, has been farming there in recent years.
Sarbacker got the cattle out of the barn, sometimes through blinding smoke, Aegerter learned from family members.
The cattle were breeding stock valued at $30,000 to $100,000 apiece, said Whitewater Fire Chief Don Gregoire.
The cattle likely breathed in smoke, so a veterinarian checked them out, but they appeared OK, Gregoire said
The barn, a total loss, was valued at $250,000. Lost contents were valued at $50,000, Gregoire said.
Heavy smoke blew across the highway and was visible for miles in Sunday’s sunny skies.
Twenty-six fire departments from as far away as Elkhorn and Helenville responded to the farm at 10501 E. Highway 59. The call went out at 11:34 a.m. The highway remained closed until about 4:05 p.m.
The barn was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived, Gregoire said, and as hoses were being led out, the heat caused power lines to snap and fall to the ground.
“Everybody got out because the power lines were dancing around. They were live,” Gregoire said.
No firefighters were injured, Gregoire said.
Gregoire was unhappy that We Energies did not get a truck to the scene for what he said was 90 minutes, keeping firefighters from the fire.
We Energies spokeswoman Cathy Schulze said crews were summoned at 11:45 a.m. and were on the road within 10 minutes, one from Burlington and another from another location Schulze did not know.
Authorities would not let them through when they arrived, so they had to approach from a different direction, delaying them, Schulze said. She was not sure why the truck was blocked and guessed it was because of safety concerns.
The We Energies truck was on the scene in just under an hour from the time it left, Schulze said.
Two silos and an office attached to the barn also were damaged, Gregoire said.
Aegerter said it was hard for her to learn that a landmark of her youth is gone.
The barn was at the place the Agnew family called the main farm. Aegerter said her grandparents, Bill and Helen Agnew, once farmed there.
“My dad and his brothers and sister grew up there,” Aegerter said.
Aegerter’s Uncle Bob and Aunt Sherrie Agnew later took over.
Many Agnew cousins raised their 4-H animals there. Some got their pet cats from the barn.
“Some of my earliest memories involve that barn,” Aegerter said.
Aegerter said her earliest memory is when she was 3, she was staying with her grandmother when her sister was born, and the milkhouse burned, but the barn was saved.
Aegerter said family members might gather to process the loss and mourn the old barn.
“It’s amazingly emotional,” she said. “There have been a lot of tears.”
Source: Gazettextra
