By Lori EhdeThree fire departments, 10 trucks and nearly 50 fire and rescue personnel responded to a barn and granary fire Monday night in northern Rock County.Craig and Christine Lovett returned home from the Luverne Middle School-High School concert around 8:30 p.m. Monday to find their barn completely engulfed in flames.By the time fire crews arrived, the granary was also on fire.According to Dan Kindt, Hardwick fire chief, gusty winds fanned the flames, making it difficult to control the blaze."The wind didn’t help," he said. "That really fueled it."Fire departments from Hardwick, Jasper and Luverne worked on the blaze.Fire crews remained on the scene four miles north of Hardwick until about 1 a.m., Kindt said, and they went back this morning to check burning embers. "It’s still burning today," he said Tuesday afternoon. "The wind was from the right direction (blowing away from the house), so that helped."Kindt said both buildings were full of hay, and the barn housed some goats, which he speculated were destroyed in the fire.A heat lamp in the barn is the suspected cause of the fire. "When it’s all in the pile like that, it’s hard to say," Kindt said. "But we’re guessing it was electrical."
