Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
PARMA, Idaho (AP) — Officials in southwest Idaho are investigating the cause of a Thursday morning fire that destroyed the milk parlor and cheese-making area of a Canyon County goat dairy.
"It's just so devastating. It's 27 years of work," owner Karen Evans told KTVB-TV (http://bit.ly/1mpAzHG ).
Officials said no people or goats were hurt in the fire at Rollingstone Chevre in Parma that drew firefighters from 13 different agencies.
"This is an area that doesn't have fire hydrants, so we had to call for multiple tenders," Star Fire Protection District Chief Greg Timinsky said. "Shortly after we started fighting the fire, the roof started falling in."
The structure is a total loss, officials said.
Evans estimated the loss at hundreds of thousands of dollars. The 2,000-square-foot building held expensive pasteurization and cheese making equipment, she said.
The company on its website says it uses only milk from its own herd of Saanen goats to produce a variety of cheeses. Evans said the goats reside in a different area than where the fire occurred, and that a barn was singed but not badly damaged. She praised firefighters.
"It was really amazing what the firefighters did," she said. "They were pounding on my bedroom window and door."
Evans said she hopes to restore the dairy and continue making cheese, but isn't sure how much of the damage will be covered by insurance.
"I hope to rebuild, but I don't know," she said. "I've got to find out what happened with the insurance. It's just kind of another hard blow here."
___
Information from: KTVB-TV, http://www.ktvb.com/
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
