Firefighters at the scene of a barn fire south of Gardnerville early Monday. Photo by Annalyn Settelmeyer
More than 200 tons of hay was lost along with the barn and a hay squeeze as a result of a fire on the Settelmeyer Ranch south of Gardnerville just after midnight Monday.
Rancher Annalyn Settelmeyer detailed the effort to rescue equipment and fight the fire on a social media post on Thursday.
“Nothing scares you more to your bones than getting a phone call early Monday morning saying the hay barn is on fire,” she wrote.
She said brother James Settelmeyer and husband Eric Rieman rescued the tractor, hay wagon, three harobeds and a cattle truck.
Firefighters helped the family rescue the hay baler. No one was injured.
“We didn’t lose anything else thanks to East Fork Fire District and Douglas County sheriff’s deputies,” she said. “Eric and James then hopped on the excavator and loader and pulled burning hay out of the barn for firefighters.”
The two men continued working for the next 13 hours.
Settelmeyer said she’s been told that it might have been something around the hay squeeze, which was lost in the fire.
The ranch was already scheduled to ship their calves for sale that morning in addition to the fire.
