Clean up efforts are underway after a massive fire tore through a building on Wisconsin’s largest dairy farm. The blaze at the Rosendale Dairy on Tuesday kept fire fighters from six different counties busy for several hours.
Rosendale Fire Chief Dave McCoy says it began with a tractor engine that caught fire inside a feed barn, which then spread to more than 13,000 bales of hay. McCoy says the fire moved rapidly in a building that was “packed full” and the barn was fully engulfed by the time firefighters arrived on the scene.
McCoy says the fire hit where the operation stores most of its hay for feed and bedding. The storage barn was nowhere near the livestock, so dairy operations continued as they fought the fire. Officials say the 8,400 cows at the facility were not in any danger.
AUDIO: Chief Dave McCoy (:08)
Damage estimates put the value of the lost feed at about $500,000, while the commodity shed had an estimated value of as much as $1 million.
Two dairy workers had to be treated for minor smoke inhalation. No other injuries were reported.
Bob Nelson, KFIZ