By Cary Snyder
Wyoming Tribune-Eagle
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Pam Heschke had trouble answering the necessary but painful question when a firefighter asked her to put a dollar amount on the damage.
“You can’t put a price on that kind of stuff,” she said the morning after about 100 animals died in a fire that destroyed her family’s barn.
Some of the animals were pets. Others were being raised for use by children in the Laramie County 4-H program.
Among those that died were three mares, a mini donkey, a calf, seven ewes, a ram, 10 pygmy goats, about 25 chickens and ducks and a goose that had been with the family since they moved onto the property in 1993.
“Each and every one of them had names,” Pam said between tears Tuesday while sitting in her heated car within sight of the smoldering remains of the barn.
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The fire started shortly before midnight in the barn next to their house at 8118 Ketcham Road west of the city. The family believes one of the lambs in the back pen or a ewe got rambunctious and knocked over an electric heater, sparking the blaze.
Lewis Simpson, public information officer for Laramie County Fire District 2, said several people driving by the area saw the flames and called in the fire, which was started by the heater.
The extreme cold temperatures and high winds made fighting the fire difficult, and the priority quickly became protecting the house Pam and her husband, Jeff, share with their sons. The house was not damaged.
“There really was not much we could do,” Simpson said. “When we got on scene, the building was pretty much collapsed.”
The family did not know the 32-by-32 barn with a small addition under the same roof was on fire until a sheriff’s deputy knocked on their door shortly before midnight.
“We woke up to the officer knocking on our door, and I looked out the window,” Pam said.
If the fire had started just 15 or 20 minutes earlier, some of the animals likely could have been saved.
Jacob Heschke, 19, was in the barn until about 11 p.m., and at that point, he said, everything was fine. He often spends the night in the barn this time of year to give the ewes extra attention when they are birthing.
His younger brother, Josh, said he was sitting in his pickup truck talking on the phone outside of the house until about 11:30 p.m., when he went inside.
The sons have a lengthy history of participating in 4-H and FFA, the former Future Farmers of America. Jacob said he raises the lambs this time of year so that children who participate in 4-H can have the animals make weight in time for the Laramie County Fair in August.
While driving slowly by the remaining ashes of what used to be the barn, Pam, who turns 53 years old today, identified the remains of some of the animals.
“I guess when you say it’s devastating, it’s a tragedy, even though they’re animals,” she said.
She tried to find some solace in the aftermath.
“We did have one survivor though - a rabbit,” she said.
Asked how they can go about recovering from the fire, the brothers each took their time in responding.
“I don’t know. Start over,” said Josh, 17. “That’s what most people say. It’s hard to replace that kind of livestock.”
“It’s kind of hard. You really can’t. You can start all over, but it won’t be the same,” Jacob said while standing behind the counter of the family business on South Greeley Highway. The Heschkes own Circle J Feeds, Triple J Pumping and Lazy J Tackle.
The flames have subsided, and there is nothing left of the barn, but for the Heschkes, the memories of what they lost will continue.
“There is no end to a fire. It’ll last forever,” Pam said.
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