Thursday morning blaze at Collins Elevator near Norwalk

FULL STORY: An early-morning fire ravaged a feed mill and office at the Collins Elevator, a small-town landmark and a staple for many area farmers.It's not yet clear what caused it, but state fire officials said it started in the gift shop and resulted in an estimated $250,000 in damage.Flames engulfed the tin and wood building as the fire spread.The bulk of the grain is stored across the street and was not affected, but the fire still destroyed grain that sat in the warehouse area, as well as tens of thousands of dollars in equipment.Firefighters hauled water to the rural area on South Railroad Street using a portable pond, keeping a close eye on a full propane tank that stood just a few feet away from the blaze. A neighbor spotted the flames and called the Collins Fire Department at 4:44 a.m. Thursday. Five area fire departments responded and quelled the blaze within three hours, Collins fire Chief Alan McGinn said, but about a dozen firefighters remained there throughout the day to cool hot spots.By noon, they stood waiting for the charred remains to stop smoking so they could begin excavating them.The state fire marshal's office is continuing its investigation.Owners Galen and Sue Sayler have operated the family business since 1972 to help supplement their grain and livestock farming.One of the few remaining feed mills in the area, it served countless small farmers from Cleveland all the way to Oak Harbor."I hate to think of everything yet," Galen Sayler said as he tried to assess the damage. "We lost a few thousand bushels of corn, wheat, oats and soybeans, maybe $10,000 to $15,000 worth of feed in the warehouse ... the seed and wheat in the back was also destroyed, about $5,000 worth."That's not counting all the furniture and equipment inside the office, which totals tens of thousands of dollars, he said.His wife, Sue, and daughter, Gayle Kovach, also ran a country store and gift shop inside, selling pottery, baskets and other odds and ends. Sayler and his wife had hoped to step down from the feed business soon to concentrate on farming hogs and livestock, as well as about 800 acres of fields they own a few miles away.He'll leave it up to his son and daughter to decide whether to rebuild, he said. His son, Dan Sayler, stood shaking his head with a group of neighbors, watching the mounds of smoldering debris. He said he'd have to sit down with his wife and talk about what to do now.Business had been picking up in recent months with the closure of the Sunrise grain mill and trouble at Central Erie Supply and Elevator, he said."We were getting new people every day," he said. "Everyone who still had a horse or a few cows." Whether or not they reopen the mill as a business, he said his family would still use it for grain to feed their own animals.Lifelong Collins resident Steve Heitsche and his brother Ted said they weren't sure where small-scale farmers will go now.The grain elevator and feed mill seemed to define their town of fewer than 2,000 people, which has little more than a post office."No one seems to know where Collins is, but everybody knows where the grain elevator is," said Steve Heitsche, who remembered stopping into the store for candy when he was as young as 4 or 5. "I remember them mixing the feed for the animals, making the feed bags. It's definitely a shame — it was a nice little mom-and-pop operation."