GAMBIER — A barn fire at 21495 Zion Road near Killduff Road, which destroyed a 24-by-42 foot barn Friday night, remains under investigation, according to the Division of State Fire Marshal. According to Todd McKee, a firefighter with Eastern Knox County Joint Fire District who served as incident commander during the blaze, the fire caused almost $500,000 in damage.

The fire was dispatched as a fully involved barn fire at 7:47 Friday evening. The EKCJFD and College Township Fire Department responded.

“When we arrived, we found power lines on three sides of the barn and a fuel tank sitting right up next to the barn,” McKee said. “Initially our main concern was cooling the fuel tank and shutting off the power to those lines.”

McKee said the EKCJFD investigation team began looking into the cause immediately. Chief Larry Stimpert requested a state fire marshal investigator be dispatched to the scene. The SFM investigator arrived around midnight.

Thirty-five firefighters responded to the blaze, which took about 90 minutes to extinguish. Fire crews remained on the scene until approximately 3:30 a.m.

SFM spokesman Shane Cartmill said the on-scene investigator was not able to determine the cause of the fire, which is believed to have started in the northern portion of the structure housing motorcycles, cars and campers. Cartmill said the building housed an agricultural GPS business. According to the Knox County Auditor’s Web site, the building belongs to Timothy B. Norris.