ROLLINGSTONE — An old downtown Rollingstone blacksmith shop that had been converted to a storage building for Rollingstone Feed and Grain Co. was destroyed in a fire that was reported about 7 p.m. Monday.
It took about 40 firefighters from Rollingstone and Altura until past midnight to put out the fire and make sure adjacent buildings weren't damaged, said Rollingstone Fire Chief Troy Kieselhorst.
"We saved all the other buildings," he said.
The storage building, however, was a total loss. The walls are still standing, but it's been badly gutted, he said. A grain truck and some feed were inside. Kieselhorst said he has no idea how much the dollar loss was. A state fire marshal has been called in to try to determine the cause.
The building is about 30-feet-by-40-feet and was remodeled a few years ago.
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"It was a pretty sharp-looking building," Kieslhorst said.
Low temperatures froze much of the water on the street, "there were tons of ice on the street," he said. The city's streets department had to add sand and salt, he said.
