Berend Logtenberg knew what had happened as soon as he opened the dairy barn door and the smoke billowed out.
“I already knew it’s over,” he said of his cows, barn and family’s livelihood.
The barn was well insulated with just a few ventilation openings for smoke to escape. There was so much smoke that he believes the nearly 200 cows in the free stall barn could not have survived long.
“They were just overwhelmed,” he said.
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The cause of the Dec. 8 fire is still under investigation. The fire commissioner’s office said Dec. 13 that some heavy equipment still had to be brought in to move debris to complete the work.
Logtenberg said the blaze seemed to start and spread rapidly. He had just left the barn a half-hour before his son noticed the smoke.
“That’s what puzzles us the most,” he said.
His wife, Jeanet, called 911 but all he could do was watch.
“I just stood there for what seemed an awful long time,” he said.
Volunteer local firefighters managed to stop the fire before it destroyed the building. The front half is still standing.
The dairy represented eight years of work for the family farm near Vibank, Sask. Originally from the Netherlands, the Logtenbergs have four young children and Berend said at least no people were hurt.
The Logtenbergs had insurance and hope to rebuild.
“What is a barn?” he said. “That can be replaced. The cows … that’s what hurts me.”
