Click to enlarge CHRIS JENNINGS / HERALD DEMOCRAT A fire on Monday in the Tom Bean FFA swine barn killed some animals students hoped to show at Texoma Livestock Show and Exposition.

BY KATHY WILLIAMS

HERALD DEMOCRAT

TOM BEAN -- Two dozen pigs died in a fire at a school barn about 1 a.m. Monday, erasing dreams their owners had of showing them at the Texoma Livestock Show.

Tom Bean High School Principal Roger Ellis said Monday afternoon that the building itself, which housed only pigs and not other livestock, was a total loss. Ellis said the fire marshal had determined the fire's cause was accidental but did not know what caused the accident. Fire officials were checking to see if there were lightning in the area when the fire started and they also were investigating the possibility of the fire's being electrical in origin.

The call on the fire came at 1:10 a.m. Monday, Ellis said, and the last student to tend an animal in the building had left at 10 p.m. Sunday. Ellis stood outside the barn as investigators worked Monday. He kept an eye out for students to protect them from looking into the building where the dead animals had to remain until after the fire marshal had finished his investigation.

Although he has said the building is a total loss, Tom Bean Independent School District's insurance adjuster has not yet determined the value of the loss. The adjuster also hasn't determined whether insurance will cover the loss of the animals.

Ellis said it might be hard to determine the value of an animal, because the baby pigs cost between $75 and $250 to start with. The 24 students who were raising the animals also had invested substantial amounts in their feed and care.

The Texoma Livestock Show will be held at Loy Park March 29-April 2, so the students had been working with their animals for some time already. Students sell their animals at auction following the shows they enter to recoup the cost of raising them and to purchase their next animals. Ellis said about 10 other students had swine projects that were being raised elsewhere and were not affected by the fire.

None of the cattle, located in a barn next to the swine barn, were injured. Some of the heifers had been shown, and some had won ribbons at the recent Fort Worth Heifer Show.

Ellis said the building is an instructional facility, but the animal projects themselves are an extracurricular activity. He said some of the students might have had an emotional reaction to losing their animals in the fire, and the school's counselors were prepared to help them with those issues if they arose.