Wellman barn destroyed by fire

A barn near Wellman caught fire Saturday night and burned to the ground. No injuries were reported. The barn was located at 1555 180

^th

St., about four miles south of Wellman. Jared Kinsinger, assistant fire chief in Wellman, said that he and other Wellman firefighters were dispatched to the fire at about 11:30 p.m. When they arrived at the scene, the barn was already engulfed in flames.

?The barn was a total loss,? Kinsinger said. ?The roof collapsed five minutes after we arrived. There was no way we could save the barn.?

Kinsinger said the cause of the fire has yet to be determined. He said there was nothing in the barn of significant value such as farm implements. He said there were no animals in the barn, either, although he learned from the property owners that it housed animals earlier in the summer.

Kinsinger estimated that there were at least 12 firefighters there from Wellman, and at least another 10 from the Keota Fire Department and four from the Kalona Fire Department.

?We saw that the barn was too far gone to attempt saving it, so we concentrated our efforts on cooling the propane tank next to it,? he said. ?Keota and Kalona brought water, too. After the barn collapsed, we extinguished the fire. We were there for probably four hours.?

According to the Washington County Safety Center, an LP tank with 60 gallons of fuel in it was near the barn, as was a chicken shed.

?We don?t know what would have happened had the propane tank exploded,? Kinsinger said. ?Explosions are always bad. It could have ignited the other buildings. Thankfully, it did not explode.?