SYCAMORE – Firefighters really saved Sycamore High School students' bacon Wednesday morning – as well as their chicken thighs and duck breasts.
Sycamore High School sophomore Cole Baumgartner checks on a couple of pigs that were rescued Wednesday after a fire broke out in a building behind Sycamore High School that houses animals used by students in an agricultural program. Damage was minimal and no humans or animals were injured in the blaze. Mark Busch - mbusch@shawmedia.com
(Caption: Sycamore High School sophomore Hunter Ratliff shovels hay out of a building Wednesday after a fire was extinguished inside by Sycamore firefighters.)
Sycamore, DeKalb and Cortland firefighters responded just after 11 a.m. Wednesday to the barn at the southwest corner of the campus, where a heat lamp had been knocked over onto some hay and started a fire, Nicole Stuckert, the District 427 chief financial officer, said at the scene.
By 11:30, the fire was out, and both Stuckert and Dean of Students Nick Reineck said there was more smoke than fire, and that all the animals were unhurt. Two pigs were outside the barn "getting fresh air," in Reineck's words, while 27 chickens and eight ducks were in the barn. He said the barn took little to no damage, and that classes would proceed as usual in the afternoon.
Sycamore Fire Chief Pete Polarek said the damage was a "couple hundred dollars," and confirmed that the cause was a heat lamp, and that no one – animal, human or superhuman (read: firefighter) was hurt.
The barn is used for agriculture education.
"For students who didn't grow up on farms, this gives them a true ag experience," Reineck said.
Sycamore firefighters are shown at the scene of a small fire that broke out at a barn behind Sycamore High School on Wednesday.