A historic log home at 33 Dehner Road in rural Hillsboro was destroyed by a May 12 fire.
The home, which was vacant, was built in the 1850s, said one of the owners, Sally Dehner.
Goldman Fire Chief Curtis Peters said the home had stained glass windows and some old furniture inside.
There was no electric to the building and no thunderstorms in the area, Peters said.
“It was a calm, clear day,” he said.
Peters said Monday (May 22) that the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office had not determined the cause of the fire and was still investigating.
At 4:06 p.m., the Goldman Fire Protection District received a call to check the area around Hwy. 21 and Hayden Road in the Hillsboro area, and firefighters spotted a column of smoke in the distance.
They followed the smoke to Dehner Road just off Glade Chapel Road, where they found the cabin engulfed in flames, Peters said.
“It was 100 percent involved,” he said.
The two-bedroom home was about 30-by-40-feet in size – “a pretty good size for a log cabin,” Peters said
Firefighters could not save it.
“There was nothing much to save or do,” he said. “It was completely destroyed, unfortunately.”
Firefighters poured about 10,000 gallons of water on the fire, getting some from an old cistern on the property and some from tanker trucks since there was no public water at the site.
While firefighters fought the blaze, neighbors contacted the owners of the home, who live in St. Louis County, and they arrived on the scene. One of the owners, a woman, told firefighters that a relative had researched the history of the home, Peters said.
“She was really sad about it (the fire),” he said. “She wanted to turn the cabin over to a historical society.”
Although the weather was fair on May 12, the road to the home was muddy from previous rains, so accessing the site was difficult, Peters said.
“We had two trucks get stuck back there,” he said.
Firefighters from the Hillsboro, Antonia and Saline Valley Fire Protection districts assisted with the call.