Overnight blaze claims dairy goat facility ...

The cause of a raging blaze that was reported Tuesday, July 12 just before midnight and consumed a dairy goat facility on the Richard and Elisha Marti farm about six miles southeast of Waukon on Jefferson Road remains under investigation nearly a week after the blaze took place, according to a report from the Waukon Area Fire Protection District. The Allamakee County Sheriff Dispatch Center received a call about the fire at approximately 11:55 p.m. Tuesday, and by that time the second floor of the two-story barn was already fully involved, according to the fire district report. The first floor of the barn was currently being used as a goat milking facility, with the milking parlor located on the south end of the building and a nursery and holding pens making up the rest of the barn's first floor. Although more than 200 goats were saved by the evacuation efforts of the Marti family and attending firefighters, several of the animals were lost in the blaze, along with more than 1,000 small square bales of hay stored in the second story of the facility. In addition to battling the flames in the primary building, firefighters also sprayed water on adjacent buildings in an effort to prevent them from also being engulfed in flames, including a nearby building covered with wood shingles that also sustained very minor damage in the fire, according to the report. Although the blaze was extinguished in the early Wednesday morning hours, several members of the firefighting crew remained at the scene with a tanker truck to further protect the adjacent buildings while the smoldering hay and building materials were cleaned up and hauled away. In all, members of the Waukon Area Fire Protection District were on scene for approximately 13-1/2 hours, with the Waterville Fire Department assisting with water tanker support. Submitted photo.