The Community Comes Together To Prevent A Potential Disaster

What a fortunate thing that jogger, Ruth Rethmeier was able to spot the beginnings of the barn burning at the Vedder’s dairy farm. The fire departments were called and arrived on the scene within a few minutes.

Several other neighbors with heavy equipment also came to help.

Cliff Vedder said that they think the fire started from a faulty electrical box in the front of the barn. Nothing was salvagable and their favorite tractor and a zero radius mower along with a grinder mixer were ruined. Approximately 125 big round bales of alfalfa hay were burned and kept burning. They were dragged out into an empty field and burned for several more days. Salt was also being stored in the barn and turned into melted salt covering the ground beneath where it was stored. The deer have shown a lot of interest in licking the concentration of salt remaining on the ground.

They would like to thank Roger Vedder, Mack Hinton, Tom Straatmann, and the New Haven, Berger and Bolles Volunteer Fire Depts.

Don commented that they were very lucky and thankful to have saved the adjoining barn.