Bio: Rohland, Emil – Barn Fire (1975)

Transcriber: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Rohland, Gehrke

---------Source: Owen Enterprise (Owen, Clark County, Wis.) 10 Sep 1975

The 35x150 foot modern barn on the Emil Rohland farm, four miles north of Withee (Clark Co., Wis.) on County Trunk "T", was levelled by an early morning fire Wednesday.

An alarm sounded at 7:45 a.m. alerted the fire company, who spent better than 12 hours at the scene as towering flames fell the structure, in addition to destroying the nearby milk house and 14,000 bales of new hay. Fire Chief Gehrke said that the large cement silo was undamaged, but the second unit of stave construction, showed "chipping" due to the intense heat.

Morning chose were about finished when the fire was discovered, so that all livestock were saved.

Fire Chief Gehrke say his report will indicate the blaze was caused by spontaneous combustion.