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Lightning starts fire that destroys 136-year-old barn June 22

Lead Summary
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By
Lori Sorenson

The early morning sky on Wednesday, June 22, was a spectacular sound and light show of a classic summer thunderstorm.
But one lightening bolt connected with a barn on the Darrell and Leah Van Meeteren farm northeast of Luverne.
"We heard the loudest crack that night, but we didn't realize it was at our place," Darrell Van Meeteren said Thursday. "There was a lot of electricity in the air."
What he also didn't realize was that all that electricity ignited a fire that nearly consumed the building before they even knew about it.
"At 2 a.m. the cops were pounding on our doors," Van Meeteren said.
A passing motorist on County Road 8 noticed the leaping flames across the section and reported it to the Sheriff's Office.
According to Luverne Fire Chief David Van Batavia, the blaze was too advanced by the time firefighters arrived to try to save it.
"They had originally dispatched Luverne, Hardwick and Edgerton fire departments, but we canceled Edgerton, because it was so far gone," he said.
The Luverne crew arrived with 5,000 gallons of water in its two tankers, and Hardwick brought more than 2,000 gallons.
Their job on arrival was to contain the fire and protect surrounding structures and property. "The building next to it was catching fire when we got there," Van Batavia said.
A nearby propane tank hissed with steam when water from a fire hose hit it.
As flames ate away at the barn, fire crews tore apart the building remains in order to get at every last burning ember.
"A small excavator was brought in to help," Van Batavia said. "Before we left, we laid a nice blanket of foam over everything."
He said the fire call lasted from 2 to 6 a.m., and they worked in rain most of the time they were there.
Van Meeteren said he was grateful for the extra effort.
"They said the wind was going to shift, and it did," he said. "At first the wind was from the southeast, and it carried the noise [and flames] away from the house. … It's what saved the other buildings."
He said Wednesday dawned with a whole new landscape on their farmyard.
"It's a wide-open view now," Van Meeteren said. "This was one of the main structures on the yard."
He said the two horses that used the barn for shelter and water had found their way out, and there was only a little hay stored inside.
But it was a structurally sound building that he's disappointed to have lost.
 "It was 136 years old," Van Meeteren said, referring to information provided by previous farm owners.
His father, John Van Meeteren and his grandfather, Ralph Otten, moved there in 1955 and used the barn for a dairy operation until a free-stall barn was constructed next to it in 1976.
"I remember carrying milk from the barn when I was growing up," Van Meeteren said.
Leah Van Meeteren said she’s still adjusting to the conspicuous absence of the barn on the yard.
“The whole farm was centered around that barn,” she said. “And so many memories were made there.”
Now all that remains is the red rock foundation (likely quarried from the nearby Blue Mounds), which the Van Meeterens are planning to leave in the ground for a possible new structure to be built on.

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