SDSU calf building catches fire; no injuries

• SDSU fire

Firefighters work a fire at a calf building on the northwest edge of the South Dakota State University campus, early Friday in Brookings. (AP Photo/Brookings Radio KJJQ-AM, Perry Miller)

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BROOKINGS (AP) — Fire heavily damaged a South Dakota State University calf building filled with 20 tons of hay early Friday and destroyed vehicles inside, but no people or animals were hurt, officials said.

A student who arrived at the building early to check on some animals noticed smoke and called 911, university spokesman Mike Lockrem told the Argus Leader. The building was engulfed in flames by the time the first firefighters arrived shortly before 4:30 a.m.

"The primary building will be probably a total loss," Brookings Fire Chief Darrell Hartmann told KJJQ radio. "The south and north wings, we were able to cordon those off and save those."

The cause of the blaze was not immediately determined and there was no immediate damage estimate.

One firefighter suffered minor injuries when he slipped and fell, Hartmann said. The four cow-calf pairs in the building were safely removed.

Pasture separates the calf building from other buildings.

"It's probably a 1950s structure ... it has served us very well," Barry Dunn, dean of SDSU's College of Agriculture and Biological Sciences, told KJJQ. "It's in pretty tough shape right now, and (it) also sounds like we lost a tractor and a pickup and a feeder wagon" that were inside.

Dunn said SDSU is in the beginning stages of building a new cow-calf unit near Volga, but completion is years away.

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