A heat lamp in a storage shed containing straw was the suspected cause of a structure fire Wednesday afternoon at 2189 Ruble Lane near Buford in Clay Township.
The shed, owned by Robert and Lori Dehart, was a total loss when firefighters arrived on the scene shortly before 5 p.m.
“We had a place fixed up for the dogs with a heat lamp,” Robert Dehart told The Times-Gazette. “It’s been like that all winter and I guess today, it started a fire.”
He said when he first saw a flickering of flames, he thought it might have been something in the fireplace in the house, but upon looking out the living room window he saw flames erupting from the shed and called the fire department.
Mark Peters, a firefighter and paramedic for Eastern Joint Fire EMS District in Sardinia, said that crews were dispatched for what was thought to be a suspected barn fire.
“Upon crew arrival it was found to be a shed full of straw fully engulfed,” he said. “They had some little dogs running around, but no people and no animals were injured, and we had water on the shed and it was put out in a quick, timely manner.”
In the initial minutes after the call went out around 4:30 p.m. mutual aid was requested, but after arrival on the scene, Peters said Fire Chief Tom Kirker realized that only the Sardinia units were needed.
Quick response by the Sardinia department combined with a steady rain to prevent the fire from spreading to the nearby home, he said.
Reach Tim Colliver at 937-402-2571
