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Delaware Township firefighters were dispatched to the Bob Cleary farm around 9:30 a.m. Thursday. The approximate 40 by 60 foot pole barn at Ruth and Wetzel roads was "fully engulfed" in flames when the department arrived, said Fire Chief Mike Erdman.

"Our biggest problem" was a second hay barn about twice as big as the one on fire that was approximately 20 feet away, and other buildings that were close-by, the chief reported.

The steel building was collapsing, the front doors had fallen off and flames were shooting out the front toward the second barn.

"It was touch and go when we first got there," Erdman said.

"We couldn't let it burn in that spot... If the winds switched it would have burned the other structures down." As firemen "knocked the flames down...we had to physically move the hay that was in the burning barn."

As firemen poured water on the flames and "peeled" steel sheets off the sides of the building, a backhoe and pay-loader were used to remove the burning and smoldering bales and load them into trucks.

Then, as the trucks rolled down the driveway, firemen hosed down the still burning square bales that were dumped in a field about a half-mile away on Wetzel Road.

About 30 firefighters from Delaware, Minden City, Sherman Township and Deckerville battled the fire. Approximately 100,000 gallons of water were poured on the flames. The water was transported from Minden City and from a pond on the Ed Kerbyson farm a couple miles away.

The cause of the blaze was not immediately determined, but it was not considered suspicious, said the chief. A passing motorist reported the fire.

There were no injuries. Firemen were at the scene most of the day, clearing about 7 p.m. Erdman did not have a dollar value on the destroyed structure or the hay that had been stored inside for about three months.

Chuck Stringer Excavating and Lakeshore Improvements provided heavy equipment and trucks for the fire fight.

"It went well. It could have been so much worse," Erdman said.