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More than 350 dairy calves perished in a barn fire Friday night at the Gary Frodermann farm south of Magnolia.
Neighbor Chad Nelson called in the fire shortly before 8 p.m. Firefighters from Magnolia, Kenneth, Ellsworth, Adrian and Luverne were on the scene from 8 p.m. Friday to 2 a.m. Saturday fighting to prevent flames from spreading to nearby buildings.
Despite the loss Frodermann said, “It could have been worse. If the wind had been blowing, it could have taken all the buildings.”
Magnolia Fire Chief Scott Dohlmann said crews focused their efforts on protecting the nearby structures.
“We knew the barn was a total loss, so we were protecting the building that was two feet away,” he said. “We kept the propane tank cool and kept the shop cool.”
With a steady stream of pumper trucks filling at hydrants in Adrian and Magnolia, the Rock County Rural Water tower by Magnolia dropped 56,000 gallons, according to Dohlmann.
Frodermann said he and his family had finished chores and left home around 5:30 p.m. for a camping weekend near Fulda. Not long after they set up camp, Frodermann’s neighbor Don Mulder called about the fire, so he and his sons, Devon, 17, and Dawson, 13, immediately returned home.
The barn and calves were gone when they arrived. “There’s no way to say what caused it,” Frodermann said. “Everything was so charred.”
He did mention starting a load of clothes in the dryer in the building before leaving. Dohlmann said this may have been a cause, or a lightning strike a week earlier could have shorted wiring in the building.
Both Dohlmann and Frodermann said neighbors played an important role in reporting the fire and helping with cleanup.
“People were just coming out of the woodwork to help,” Frodermann said. “The food we had was tremendous. … So many people were offering to help, we had to turn some away.”
Dohlmann said Bill Fluit from Kenneth brought an excavator to pull apart the debris in order for hoses to douse smoldering remains. “That was a big help,” Dohlmann said.
Frodermann said by Monday the barn remains had been buried and the site was cleared. “This is great, because we have to start rebuilding,” he said. “We’re getting more calves and we need a place for them.”
The barn was equipped with individual pens for bottle-feeding calves from 1 day old to 8 weeks old. From there, they get moved to the next-door building for feeding up to 250 pounds.
Frodermann said the calves are constantly moving as they grow, but at any given time there can be 370 to 400 calves in the barn that burned.
“The barn can be rebuilt. I just felt sad for the cattle,” he said. “These poor calves. They were just beautiful.”
What’s worse, he said his daughters Kendra, 14, and Kaytlen, 11, grow attached to the calves during their 10- to 12-week stint on the farm.
“They were devastated,” Frodermann said. “There were six or eight that they were going to keep back for 4-H next year.”