Photos + Video: Sunday afternoon fire results in millions of dollars in loss for rural Adrian family
Nov. 20—ADRIAN — A $200 car caused millions of dollars in losses for the Chad Hokeness family of rural Adrian Sunday afternoon.
The vehicle, which was parked just outside a machine shop, caught fire and the blaze quickly spread to the shop, shared Hokeness on Monday morning. By the time the Adrian Fire Department arrived on the scene, Fire Chief Brett Jackson said the first building was fully engulfed.
There were two machine shops on the site, separated by an office in between. The entire complex was a total loss after at least 13 area fire departments and an ag business worked together to douse the flames.
Hokeness, who was doing field work at the time, said his wife was in the office area and there were a couple of employees on site when the fire broke out.
"They all seen it immediately," Hokeness said. "I told them to take a payloader and shove the burning car out of the way."
It was already too late.
"A $200 car cost millions," Hokeness said. "Knowing there was nobody in there — it's just stuff. I felt that way right away. You can't make it stop; it's just happening."
Hokeness said he followed the first two fire trucks down the driveway to the site, located at 23405 Edwards Ave. He said the machine sheds were filled with equipment, including payloaders, silage choppers and tractors. There was some bulk oil stored inside as well.
"When we arrived on scene, the machine shed on the north side was pretty much fully engulfed and working its way toward the middle of the building," reported Jackson. "It's a metal building with a tin roof and the one side was already on fire. It spread through the rafters and you can't get water through the roof. Until an opening opens up, it's kind of hard to get water to the fire."
Water was the biggest issue in fighting the fire, with departments hauling from Rushmore, Adrian and Lismore.
"Keeping the water supply coming — we kept paging the closest departments we could get," Jackson said.
Adrian Fire Department was the lead agency, and quickly requested help from Rushmore and Lismore, followed by Worthington, Ellsworth, Wilmont, Bigelow, Brewster, Round Lake, Luverne, Edgerton, Chandler, Lake Wilson and Fulda. Most of those departments provided tankers and pumpers, with Worthington also supplying its aerial truck. Luinenberg Waste Management brought two of its manure tankers loaded with water as well.
At times early on in the blaze, the pumpers ran out of water and had to wait for tankers to arrive. Departments refilled their tankers at Adrian, Rushmore and Lismore.
As of Monday morning, Jackson didn't have a total on the amount of water used, but said 77,000 gallons were taken out of Adrian alone. At one point during the response, it was reported over the police scanner that the Rushmore water tower was getting low on water and it was advised to send tankers elsewhere to refill.
Both Jackson and Hokeness said the wind worked in their favor, if there was a bit of good news about the blaze.
"You don't get east winds very often," Hokeness said. "It was in the right direction, otherwise the whole yard ...."
"The way it was blowing, it was toward a dug field so there wasn't a concern for the fire spreading," Jackson added.
Hokeness said he received a call about the fire at 3:14 p.m. The Adrian Fire Department was dispatched at 3:23 p.m., and the calls for mutual aid continued through the 6 o'clock hour. The farthest away departments were told they could return to their base at 7 p.m., and the Adrian Fire Department left the scene a little after 8 p.m., Jackson said.
"A big thank you to all the departments that came out and helped supply water and manpower and keeping things under control," Jackson shared. "We definitely appreciate it."
Hokeness said he tried to thank all of the departments Sunday evening.
"But there was a lot of them there," he said. "Thanks to all of them. It's a good thing we have a lot of local volunteer fire departments that are able to do something like that."
