An early morning barn fire this past Wednesday, April 1 in the Town of Delmar, has left a family of six safe, but its dairy farming livelihood in ruins, along with that of a full time farmhand, now unemployed. Rodney Ryba is the fourth generation to farm at 31396 105th Avenue in the Town of Delmar. The Ryba family farm is also a century farm, and the barn was built in 1918. Rod took the farm over from his parents in 1999, and together with his partner Kate and their four children Olivia, James, Kylie and RJ had been making a go of it, until now. Rod’s mother Kathy Ryba was also loyal to the farm, even after retiring. She had an essential role in keeping the farm going over the years, with ups and downs along the way.

“There’s been a lot of ups and downs over the years,” Rod said of the farm life. In unlikely circumstances April has been a tough month for the Ryba’s. In April of 2010, Rod’s nephew Kyle Ryba tragically lost his life, having grown up helping on the farm. In April of 2014, Rod’s father Bill Ryba passed away. Now, it’s the barn.

“They meant a lot to me,” Rod said of the various losses over the years, then added of the present barn fire, “It was hard to see the cows go like that.” Although firefighters were able to get three cows of the 69 cow herd out of the barn, they had been inside the burning structure for too long, and so had to be euthanized. Given that the cows were almost like family, it was a lot to take in. Also lost in the fire were two pet cats who were pregnant and “due any day.” These didn’t make it out of the haymow, where it is believed the fire began.

The fire at the Ryba farm was discovered just after 2:00 a.m. this past Wednesday, when Rod woke up from the glow reflected off the neighbor’s barn across the street, and the heat coming in through a bedroom window. Initially, he thought there was something going on over at the neighbors, until Kate looked out one of the kid’s windows and realized it was their own barn on fire. The barn was already coming down when Ryba made it outside, too late to do anything in terms of saving the structure or the animals inside. The fire department was there in 18 minutes, which impressed the family as it was the middle of the night. Reached for comment, Boyd fire chief Ron Patten gave more details on the structure fire, which is still under investigation.

“They woke up to the whole barn on fire,” he said, saying that the entire fire department rosters of Stanley and Cadott had come to give mutual assistance to the Boyd department, with tanker trucks also coming in from Cornell and Chippewa Falls. In total, firefighters were on the scene for almost seven-and-a-half hours, from the call just after 2:00 a.m. until 9:30 a.m. that same morning. Safely out but still smoldering in isolated corners this past Thursday afternoon, melted glass block windows and a concrete block foundation with cracks in it show the intensity of the fire’s heat. At least one silo on the side of the barn will have to come down as well, its side blackened with smoke residue. In the midst of their barn’s loss, however, the family is grateful, feeling blessed to live in the Stanley-Boyd community. In particular, they would like to thank Kwik Trip for donating coffee and hot sandwiches to the firemen during the fire— but there are others to thank also.

“We’re just extremely grateful that there are so many people that are willing to help,” Kate said, as she said that many family, friends and neighbors had already reached out, along with the Stanley-Boyd school district, all asking how it could help. This week marks the first week of online school instruction at Stanley-Boyd Schools— something that has been challenging in itself—and the barn loss adds to this. Rod put things into a larger perspective, though.

“It doesn’t just affect me,” he said, mentioning that he had 10 sisters who had grown up on the farm as well, and that numerous area businesses depended on farming and farmers for their income, and that the Ryba family kept their business local. Asked how area residents could help, Rod said, “I think there’s people who need it more than we do right now,” even as he said that he appreciated the gesture. “We’ll be okay.” And of rebuilding the barn to make another go of it?

“We’d love to,” Kate shared, though this, like so much else in the present, was still up in the air as we talked this past Thursday. Many things will need to be addressed before the question of rebuilding can be answered, but Rod didn’t want people to just remember the farm for the barn fire. “My dad grew up here too,” he said of the four generation family farm. “I don’t want people to just remember it for this.”

Contributed photo