Rural Pelican Rapids barn fire destroys barn and wooden silo

A 125-year-old barn east of Pelican Rapids was reduced to a total loss after a 1976 Mercury backfired while James Bell and his son were trying to start it with starting fluid. The fire spread quickly at 23097 State Highway 108, taking down the barn and a wooden silo that were part of the working fabric of Bell’s rural property.

Deputies with the Otter Tail County Sheriff’s Office were called to the fire around 4:21 p.m. on Wednesday, June 10, in the 23000 block of State Highway 108 east of Pelican Rapids. By the time the flames were out, the barn and silo were both described as complete losses. The only items of value reported inside the barn were the car and some tools.

The barn’s age made the loss more than a routine structure fire. Built around 1900, the building had stood for roughly a century and a quarter before the accidental blaze destroyed it. For a rural operation, that kind of loss can mean more than replacing a building. It also removes storage space, protection for equipment and a piece of the property’s day-to-day farm infrastructure.

The Pelican Rapids Fire Department and Vergas Fire Department worked the scene and extinguished the blaze. Their response highlighted how rural fire protection in Otter Tail County often depends on quick coordination between departments serving wide stretches of farmland and highway corridor outside town. In this case, that coordination was aimed at keeping the fire from spreading farther across the property.

Deputies reported no suspicious circumstances in the investigation. The fire’s cause, traced to the backfiring Mercury, made it an unusual accident rather than a criminal act, but the practical result was still severe: a historic barn lost, a wooden silo destroyed and a rural property left to absorb the costs of rebuilding and cleanup.