Late-night fire destroys Steeleville barn

The remains of a barn on Larry Ebers' farm along Wine Hill Road between Welge and Ballpark Road were still smoldering on Tuesday morning as a result of a late-night Monday fire.

According to Steeleville Assistant Fire Chief Mike Armstrong, the barn contained various pieces of farming equipment, including a combine and a forklift, and the structure was fully involved when firefighters arrived.

No one was injured in the blaze.

"The cause of the fire is undetermined, but not suspicious," Armstrong said. "Due to the time of the fire, the fire department does not have any more information at this time."

Steeleville firefighters were paged out at 10:22 p.m. and remained on-scene for about two hours. The Chester Fire Department was paged to assist with a tanker and manpower.

"It was pretty much gone when we got there," said Chester Fire Chief Marty Bert.

According to Armstrong, this incident is believed to be the first structure fire call the SFD has received since it moved into its new firehouse the weekend of May 5-6.