Historic barn near Lake Lida destroyed in fire, no injuries reported

A 125-year-old barn near Lake Lida was reduced to a total loss Wednesday afternoon, leaving James Bell with the collapse of a longtime storage building, a wooden silo and the contents inside. The fire at 23097 State Highway 108 east of Pelican Rapids spread fast enough to engulf both structures before crews could stop it, turning a rural property loss into an immediate cleanup and recovery problem for the family.

Otter Tail County Sheriff’s Office deputies were called around 4:21 p.m. and found the barn and silo fully involved when they arrived. Pelican Rapids Fire Department and Vergas Fire Department crews worked the scene and extinguished the blaze, but neither structure could be saved. No injuries were reported.

Bell told deputies he and his son were trying to start a 1976 Mercury stored in the barn using starting fluid when the car backfired. Investigators said the fire spread from the vehicle to the barn and then to the wooden silo. Reports said the car and some tools were the only items of value in the barn, which had been used for storage.

The loss goes beyond a damaged outbuilding. A barn that dated to around 1900, standing for roughly 125 years in the Lake Lida area, is gone along with the silo that sat beside it. In rural Otter Tail County, where farm structures often double as storage, repair shops and places for equipment to wait out the winter, a fire like this can quickly wipe out a piece of property that cannot be replaced once the flames are out.

Deputies said no suspicious circumstances were noted in the investigation. The fire adds to the county’s history of costly agricultural structure losses, including a December 2020 barn fire near Henning that killed more than 1,000 goats and destroyed tractors and hay. For Bell, the June 10 fire leaves a familiar Otter Tail County farmstead facing the difficult work that follows a complete loss: clearing the site, sorting what remains and deciding what comes next.