SALEM, Ohio — A fire destroyed a barn at Kibler Dairy Farm in Warren, Ohio in the pre-dawn hours of Jan. 22 but it could have been much worse.
The damage was contained to an old bank barn and did not spread to any of the farm’s dairy buildings. The wooden bank barn was one of the older buildings on the farm, built around 1900, said Garry Kibler, Jr., who runs the farm with his dad Garry, Sr. and brother, Cory.
“It’s going to take us a lot to get used to it not being there,” Kibler said.
Kibler was the one to first see the flames around 5:30 a.m. Jan. 22. It didn’t take long for the barn filled with straw and hay to be fully engulfed, he said.
The barn also housed about 20 beef steers and a dozen hogs. Kibler said they were able to get most of the animals out, but they lost a couple of pigs in the fire. The cause of the fire is unknown, but Kibler thinks it could have been electrical.
The fire took several hours to get under control, and crews were still putting out hot spots in the straw in the afternoon. Kibler said they have another barn with straw stored, so they should be OK to get through the winter.
“I think we’ll be good,” he said. “Time will tell.”
Garry Kibler and his brother represent the fourth generation of the family to farm the land. The family milks more than 300 cows and farms about 700 acres of land. They have freestall dairy barns as well as a double 12 herringbone milking parlor.
The farm was awarded the 2022 National Dairy FARM Program Excellence Award in Environmental Stewardship. The Trumbull Soil and Water Conservation District awarded the farm the George Sharec Memorial Conservation Award in 2014
