ELDRED, Minn. -- Smoke wafted through a fresh layer of snow Tuesday afternoon as Allan Dragseth surveyed the ruins of a fire that destroyed a steel building filled with antique farm equipment he had planned to restore.
"I don't think I can get it started," he said of the charred 1954 Farmall 300 tractor. "Funny how it bent metal but it didn't burn all the hoses off."
The 40-by-100-foot shed had been filled with antique farm equipment Dragseth had planned to restore, as well as some that was still being used, when fire destroyed the structure and contents Monday afternoon. The barn was located at the Dragseth farmstead about five miles northwest of Eldred and 15 miles southwest of Crookston.
Dragseth, 74, is a semiretired farmer and co-founder, along with neighbor Roger Odegaard, of the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Museum, located in Crookston.
"There were several pieces of equipment -- maybe half a dozen -- that eventually was going to be taken to our sugar beet museum," Dragseth said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Among them were a 1956 International truck and a 24-row beet planter that Dragseth fashioned from two 12-row drills. It also contained an old school bus that had been converted into a sprayer about 20 years ago, and a 1976 John Deere 4430 tractor with snowplow attachment.
"I think that's where the fire started," Dragseth said of the John Deere.
The tractor had been used to move snow Monday morning and had been parked back in the shed shortly after noon. The fire was noticed about an hour later.
"It's a good thing some of the old stuff already was at the museum," Dragseth said.
Double-whammy
The Dragseth building fire was one of two that Crookston Fire Department firefighters battled virtually simultaneously for a time Monday.
More than two dozen firefighters spent about four hours fighting a fire, reported about 10:45 a.m., which resulted in moderate damage to the Irishman's Shanty Restaurant in Crookston.
The fire at the Dragseth farmstead was reported at about 1:15 p.m.
ADVERTISEMENT
"We could see the fire as soon as we got to the south end of town," Crookston Fire Captain Brian Halos said. "When we arrived on the scene, it was fully involved, burned most of the way to the ground. We protected a few other structures."
Some of the firefighters shuttled between the two scenes, he said.
While the cause of the Shanty fire has not been determined, investigators said Tuesday it could have been sparked by an aerosol can that exploded in the kitchen, sending a flame through a vent to the attic.
Official damage estimates both fires remain under investigation.
Call Bonham at (701) 780-1110, (800) 477-6572 ext. 1110 or send email to kbonham@gfherald.com .
