Medford, Ore. — A fire this morning destroyed a barn and sent thick black smoke into the skies over the Rogue Valley.
Firefighters responded to a structure fire on south Stage Road in Medford around 9:30 a.m. to find a barn fully engulfed in flames. Firefighters say they had the blaze contained in just minutes but the fire completely destroyed the structure along with some farm equipment, chemicals inside the barn made it difficult to fight, but crews managed to stop the fire before it spread to surrounding fields.
Chief Justin Bates of Medford Fire says, “There was really nothing we could do to save the building or the contents inside of it so we just surrounded it with our hose lines and did what we could to put water on it and keep it contained to the building.”
Firefighters say there may have been people nearby when the fire began but don’t believe anyone was inside the structure, the cause is still under investigation.
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