A HALF HOUR after lightning hit this barn today, it was a mass of flames on the Joseph E. Grau farm southwest of New Ulm. Firemen saved part of a pole shed, right, and the silo. (Photo by Ron Grieser)

A barn southwest of New Ulm was destroyed by fire this morning after it apparently was struck by lightning.

Joseph E. Grau was awakened by the rain at about 3:20 a.m. and discovered the fire. An official of the New Ulm Fire Department, which received Grau’s call at 3:35 a.m., estimated the loss at “well over $10,000”

“I got up to see if it was hailing or raining,” said Grau,who farms on Rt. 2, a mile south and a mile west of New Ulm in Sigel Township, “and saw a glow in the yard. The barn was on fire.”

It apparently had been struck by lightning, the official said.

In an hour, a raging fire destroyed the barn, built in 1912.It was 36 feet wide and 60 feet long. An attached shed erected in 1966 was damaged,along with most of a silo built in 1959.

The structures were insured, he said.

Lost inside were 3,000 bales of hay, 500 bales of straw, a water pressure system, barn cleaner, bale elevator and feed wagon.

Nine head of young feeder cattle moved out into the feedlot and were okay.

Grau called the fire department, which sent out a truck and hauled in water. Soon after, the telephone went out. A few neighbors came over to console the Graus as they watched the fire consume the barn.

“It was the first time I ever had a fire in a building,” said Grau, who has lived all his life on the farm.

The blaze could be seen from the hilltop district of New Ulm and for several miles around on the flatlands. Some residents of the south end of New Ulm reported being able to smell smoke from the blaze.

Firemen hauled water in tank trucks from New Ulm. They were still at the Grau farm at 7:30 a.m.

New Ulm Daily Journal

Aug. 12, 1975