Iowa family mourns loss of show lambs in barn fire
By Todd Magel
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BOONE, Iowa (KCCI) — A Boone family is recovering after a fire destroyed their barn and killed six show lambs over the weekend.
Heath Oakes, the owner of the barn, described the fire’s rapid spread, saying, “It started at the west end, and that it just kind of tunneled through the attic of that building. And they were just orange, just huge, big flames. I mean, and it took a matter of five minutes before it really just engulfed the whole building.”
Oakes is still trying to understand the cause of the fire, which started Saturday afternoon. He recounted his attempts to save the lambs trapped inside, saying, “By the time I knew what was happening, I couldn’t get them out. I could hear them. Tried sticking my head in there and maybe pulling the latch, but it was too late. It was fully engulfed by that point.”
Oakes suspects that a pile of manure may have overheated and ignited old corn stalks, exacerbated by strong winds. The flames spread across the field and down to the road, but firefighters managed to prevent damage to a neighbor’s field.
“I’ve never been around a fire like that before. I was kind of in panic mode. My brain probably wasn’t working right on what I should do next. So I just called the fire department, and then my main concern was the field, you know, moving to the south and then the neighbors,” Oakes said.
Despite the loss of livestock, Oakes expressed relief that his family was unharmed.
“Nobody was hurt. And that’s, you know, something I’ve been telling people. There wasn’t a death in the family, it’s tough to lose livestock in a barn, but it can be replaced, so just got to move forward,” he said.
The family still has a few lambs in a nearby barn, which helps mitigate the emotional and economic impact. They have set up a GoFundMe to assist with rebuilding efforts.
“Absolutely. I would help a lot. We’d appreciate any help we could get,” Oakes said.
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