A heat lamp may have been the cause of a fire Tuesday afternoon in rural Douglas County that destroyed a barn and left five animals dead.

The fire was reported at 3:52 p.m. Tuesday at 1752 E. 1100 Road, about a mile outside the Lawrence city limits in northern Douglas County. By the time the first firefighters arrived six minutes later, the metal-sided pole barn was engulfed in flames.

“It was fully involved and the roof already had collapsed,” said Chris Moore, chief of the Wakarusa Township fire department.

Three sheep and two goats died in the fire, and two cats were missing last night, Moore said. No humans were injured.

In all, eight fire departments responded to the scene, but icy roads complicated the response. Moore said that on his way to the fire, he drove down a precarious, slick hill on Martin Park Road and met a school bus on the way up. After that, he asked other departments to take a different route, and a dump truck from Wakarusa Township came to spread sand and salt in the area.

Moore said the fire apparently started when no one was home at the address. He estimated damage at between $25,000 and $30,000.

Because of the amount of damage to the barn, the cause of the fire will be listed as undetermined, Moore said. But he said the fire apparently started near the place where an electric heat lamp for the animals had been.

A fire destroyed a barn and killed five animals inside Tuesday at a farm about a mile outside Lawrence. Firefighters from several area departments responded to the call.

The fire combined with the freezing weather pulled firefighters’ body temperatures in opposite directions.

“A lot of times your feet will get cold and the rest of your body will be burning up,” Moore said. “Most everybody I saw was actually sweating because they were working.”

The fire was under control after about an hour, and firefighters left the scene at 7:22 p.m. Palmyra, Eudora, Willow Springs, Clinton, Kanwaka and Lecompton townships all sent tankers to the fire, in addition to Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical.

The owner of the building, listed as Tracy Smith, couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday night.