JAMESTOWN — A barn that has been on an area family’s property for over 100 years was destroyed and several animals killed in an early morning fire.
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News Center 7′s Xavier Hershovitz spoke with the family that owns the farm about the devastating fire.
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“We just happened to look out and, big blaze,” Mac McDaniel, a member of the family that owns the barn, said.
Mac and Jeff McDaiel watched as their family barn went up in flames.
“I ran down there and tried to save the animals. It was too late,” Jeff McDaniel said.
Most of the animals were able to escape, but two donkeys, a cow and a calf died.
As if the loss of their animals wasn’t hard enough, the barn itself had been in their family for more than 100 years.
“It’s a big loss,” Jeff McDaniel said. “I think of my grandpa, my late uncle and all the time we spent, me as a little boy, putting hay up in this barn. Yeah, it’s rough. It’s rough.”
Firefighters responded to the barn just before 4 a.m. The roof had already collapsed in.
Jasper Township Chief Doug McDaniel, Mac’s nephew, made the decision to call in other departments.
“When I was younger, grade school, high school, we put hay up in that barn and stuff. So yeah, it’s a little personal,” Chief McDaniel said.
Not much is left of the 100-year-old barn, but the McDaniel family is resilient.
“Just pray for us. I mean, it’s a big loss emotionally, and that’s going to be one of the worst parts, is just getting over this, and we’ll rebuild,” Jeff McDaniel said.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but the family said, with the age of the barn, this is something they were already concerned about.
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