Published: August 01, 2008 11:44 am         

Fire destroys old barn

A Thursday afternoon fire destroyed an old calf barn at 12367 C.R. 36 in which 18 round bales of hay were stored.

Clinton Township Fire Chief Abe Schlabach said, “There’s a lot of hay in there — that’s what we’re fighting.”

The barn is owned by Vernon Miller, and it was being used for storage. There were no animals inside the structure.

Miller said his daughter was painting a fence and a gate and had been using gasoline to clean off paint. Miller had turned on the barn’s water heater earlier in the day to make sure it still worked and had left it on. The water heater was still lit and that’s how he thinks the fire started.

Chief Schlabach said about 25 firefighters were at the scene. No one was hurt, but a couple firefighters had symptoms of heat exhaustion.

“It was plenty warm,” he said.

Benton Township firefighters also responded to the fire call late Thursday afternoon.