Luverne firefighters spent nearly a week battling a Jan. 20 hog barn fire that rekindled several times.
The fire was called into the Rock County Law Enforcement Center at 8:11 a.m. Monday, Jan. 20.
An alarm to a cell phone alerted barn owner Dale Reverts of a potential problem at one of the facilities on Country Road 9, three miles east of Luverne in Section 18 of Magnolia Township.
Smoke was reported coming from the east portion of the 2,400-head finishing barn. No hogs were lost in the fire.
The barn’s east portion had recently been emptied of livestock and workers quickly loaded up to 1,200 head of finished hogs in the west portion and transported them to market.
Luverne fire chief Dave Van Batavia said early indications point to a “low-level explosion” as the cause of the blaze.
A spark, possibly from heaters or fans in the barn, may have ignited manure gases from the pit located under the building.
Fire quickly reached into the barn rafters.
Departments in Hills and Beaver Creek were called for assistance at the scene Jan. 20 for a short time, bringing in water.
“Better to have extra help early,” Van Batavia said.
Morning temperatures dipped to 13 degrees below zero on Jan. 20, contributing to human fatigue and freezing of equipment, but Van Batavia said the cold didn’t severely hamper firefighting efforts.
Luverne firefighters spent most of Jan. 20 at the scene, bringing in an excavator to remove portions of the barn roof to apply water to the burning insulation.
They returned to the scene the night of Jan. 20 and again on Wednesday, Jan. 22, and Saturday, Jan. 25.
Van Batavia said firefighters will typically pull the ceiling down and remove insulation to further extinguish the fire.
This fire, however, presented some hazards.
“The ceiling proved to be compromised and I didn’t want men on the inside in case of collapse,” he said.
Instead, an excavator with a longer arm was brought in to remove more of the roof without firefighters going inside the barn.
Van Batavia said he was grateful for assistance from Steve Walker of SouthWest Excavating. He operated the excavator used in the firefighting efforts.
Located next to the damaged facility is a similar sized finishing barn, which contained more swine. The two barns are joined by an enclosed walkway.
Van Batavia said electricity and gas were shut off for the barn heaters in the occupied nearby barn, and temporary power and gas were supplied.
Note: Story has been edited to correct the business name of the excavator operator.
Smoke rolls out of the east end of the hog confinement facility east of Luverne on Jan. 20 when the Luverne Fire Department was first called to the fire. The blaze was likely caused by a “low-level explosion” of methane gas from the underbuilding manure pit.
An excavator pulls the roof back to allow Luverne firefighters to extinguish the fire that started Jan. 20 at the finishing barn located in Section 18 of Magnolia Township. Firefighters returned to the facility four times over the past week as roof insulation continued to smolder.
