By Barbara Augsdorfer, Editor for the Effingham Herald

A fire on Sept. 11 at the Honey Ridge Agricenter in Guyton, left one of the facility’s hay barns completely destroyed along with about 250 bales of hay.

The fire apparently started around 12:15 p.m. just as the mowing crew was going to lunch.

“Nobody was injured. The fire department's response, they were there until late yesterday. The sheriff and everybody was just super supportive,” said Todd Wall, district coordinator of Career Technical and Agriculture Education (CTAE) for Effingham County Schools.

“The community members reached out about helping us provide hay for the farm since we lost so much,” Wall continued. “It’s really a community effort. We're just going to rebuild. Keep going.”

Wall added that it takes about 400 bales of hay to feed the animals through the winter, so they’ll need to replace that hay, in addition to rebuilding the hay barn.

“I was just super happy with the response time and overall effort from our fire department getting it contained and staying late to make sure that we were in good shape,” Wall added. “I've had a lot of folks in the community reach out just checking on us and (asking) how they could help.”

The fire was contained to just the one hay barn. No animals were hurt. Wall added there is another hay barn on the other side of the Agricenter.

“Thank goodness it wasn’t all in one place,” Wall said.

The Honey Ridge Agricenter has been the focal point of agricultural education for Effingham County Schools since 2016. The district held a groundbreaking in June for a new arena that should be finished in mid-2024.