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Fire destroys shed and kills 3 calves

JANESVILLE Three calves died and a machine shed and it’s lean-to were destroyed in an early Wednesday morning fire in Rock Township.

Firefighters from three fire departments battled the blaze that was reported at 12:28 a.m. Wednesday at 4608 W. Hanover Road. Firefighters remained on scene for 3.5 hours, said Lt. David Sheen of the Janesville Fire Department.

The fire was easy to find, he said.

“We could see the whole thing was involved in fire from front to back, on both sides, and burning,’’ Sheen said.

Thirty 30 calves were housed in the shed’s lean-to and a fenced-in area behind the shed, he said. “Three died and one will have to be put down,’’ Sheen said.

Each calf was valued at $500, he said.

Also lost in the blaze were 55 bales of hay, 300 bushels of corn, 300 pounds of oat feed, two skid loaders, a tractor, a feed mill, a feed grinder, a bunch of hand tools and some milking equipment for a loss of $230,700, Sheen said.

The shed loss was valued at an additional $80,000, he said.

Although the fire’s cause is being listed as undetermined, “we speculate it was a spontaneous combustion in the hay that had only been in the shed less than two weeks,’’ Sheen said.

“All the hay was in the north part of the shed, where the (owner Richard) Rebout saw the fire first. And when they got a pickup truck out of the shed, bales were falling that helped spread the fire,’’ he said.

There was no electricity in the shed, Sheen said.

Orfordville and Footville fire departments assisted by providing one tanker each. Beloit Township Fire Department also was dispatched but called off before arriving on scene, Sheen said.

“Twenty-four thousand gallons of water was hauled to the scene,’’ he said.