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• Fire destroys pole shed

By Debbie Griffin, RiverTown Staff

A fire ignited just before 4 a.m. Wednesday in St. Croix County at 102 165th St. in the town of Pleasant Valley and destroyed a 54-foot by 108-foot pole shed on Larry Shada's property. No one sustained injury.

Assistant River Falls Fire Chief Mike Moody said Shada thought he heard something like a popping noise but at first didn't think much about it. By the time he got up to look, flames had engulfed the shed.

Moody said the landowner had kept in the shed welding tools including acetylene and oxygen, which is probably what he heard popping; a forklift; and an old car Shada had been working on.

An LP gas tank supplying the shed's two furnaces fueled the fire. The assistant fire chief said he thought the tank held probably 1,000 gallons.

Moody said the cause of the fire was not yet known.

By the time River Falls Fire Department crews arrived, the shed's roof had collapsed. Moody said firefighters used a backhoe to finish knocking down walls since the exposed insulation and building beams also burned.

The shed is a total loss, itself worth about $150,000, with the contents worth about $100,000. Fire didn't touch the Shada home, which sits about a football field away from the shed.

River Falls firefighters spent about four hours at the scene extinguishing the fire. Hammond Fire and Rescue helped truck water from a hydrant on Liberty Road, and Hudson firefighters filled in at the River Falls station while its crews were busy.

Moody said the morning's dense fog made it tough for tanker drivers to get to and from the scene, with visibility down to about 1/8th of a mile.

An ambulance also reported to the scene, and the electric company came out and cut off power to the shed.