A fire destroyed a barn at 79 Manion Road in the Hillsboro area in the early morning hours of Jan. 4. All the barn’s contents were destroyed, too, said Assistant Chief Tom Fitzgerald of the De Soto Rural Fire Protection District.
The fire district got a call about the fire at 1:53 a.m., when the temperature was 2 degrees, he said.
When firefighters arrived, they found the 30-by-40-foot structure fully engulfed in flames, Fitzgerald said.
“This was a barn-type structure that (the homeowners) also used as a garage,” he said.
Some of the contents destroyed in the fire included tractors and other farm equipment, Fitzgerald said.
Some animals were housed in the barn, but the homeowners told firefighters all the animals in the building made it out, Fitzgerald said.
The trailer portion of a tractor-trailer the owners had used as a storage unit was parked next to the barn and also was damaged by the fire, along with some of its contents, Fitzgerald said.
Firefighters were on the scene for about three hours, he said.
The Cedar Hill, Hillsboro and Goldman fire protection districts and the De Soto Fire Department, as well as the Valle Ambulance District, assisted with the call.