• Groton firemen had a rough night Wednesday as they battled a fire that destroyed a hay barn and a semi tractor-trailer at the Lawson farm northwest of Groton.
• The barn and semi were fully engulfed in flame when the firefighters arrived around 11 pm Wednesday night near of the intersection of 131st Street and 400th Avenue, or two miles north of U.S. Highway 12 on Granary Road. The barn, used to store hay and straw, contained about 700 large square and round bales, which made fighting the fire difficult.
• "Once the fire gets inside the tightly wrapped bale it's hard to penetrate," Groton Fire Chief Dion Bahr said. "This makes it difficult to put out the fire."
• A second semi was parked near the barn when the firemen arrived.
• "We were able to get the second semi moved," Bahr said.
• About 20 firefighters from the Groton and Bath stations were on hand to fight the blaze. They also received help from the Aberdeen Rural Fire Department. But the biggest help came from Hanlon Brothers Construction.
• "Hanlons were doing some dirt work for the farmer and had their bulldozer and excavator near the location." Bahr said. "Scott Hanlon used the excavator to remove tin from the building and to break up the hay bales. This allowed the firefighters to reach the fire and extinguish the flames easier."
• The cause of the fire is undetermined at this time, and there are no plans to do an investigation. Bahr did say that "The farmer did have insurance on the property."
• Due to the number of bales in the barn and the materials capacity to smolder, the firefighters did not leave the scene until after 6 am Bahr said.
• "By the time we got done cleaning the trucks, packing the hoses and other maintenance work, it was between 8:30 and 9 am before we left the station," Bahr said. "Some of the guys had to then report to work for their jobs; some just went home to catch some sleep."
• There were no reported injuries.

• -Char Telkamp