Fire crews battle large barn fire and cold temps in Elkhart County

ELKHART, Ind. --

“With the temperatures, everything was freezing up, our equipment our air packs, hoses,” said Lieutenant Curvin Martin with the Harrison Township Fire Dept.

More than 4 hours after its started, a barn fire in elkhart county continued smoldering.

“100 x 100 barn fire that was fully involved,” said Lieutenant Martin.

Large enough to be seen from about a mile away, that fire started around 5:00 p.m. in the 62000 block of County Road 7, just sound of County Road 30, in Elkhart County. Firefighters say they were able to keep the flames contained to just that building but a few animals were still inside.

“There’s a few animals, rabbits that were inside the barn we weren’t able to save. We saved one barn that was next to it that had some chickens in it, we were able to save them,” said Lieutenant Martin.

Lieutenant Martin says the negative degree temps and surrounding open fields with heavy wind gusts slowed the process to put those flames out and firefighters had to rotate while battling the flames and smoke.

“The air packs that we wear, out regulators on there, as soon as they got wet, they froze up. We used as much water as we can, we sent as many engines back as we could because everything was freezing up. The problem right now is everybody’s getting cold and we have to keep rotating guys out,” said Lieutenant Martin.

If it weren’t for those multiple departments responding, he says this fire could have been much worse.

“We had at least seven departments out here to help. Without that none of this could have happened so we’d like to thank them,” said Lieutenant Martin.

Fire crews are working to find the cause of that fire but they say the barn and everything in it is a total loss and crews had to demolish what was left to clear out hot spots. Other than the barn animals, no other injuries were reported.