120-year-old Bay Co. barn full of theater memorabilia destroyed in fire

BAY CO., Mich. (WNEM) – A fire in Bay County that started Sunday afternoon, Oct. 7, not only destroyed farmland; A barn that was more than a hundred years old was also destroyed.

“Unbelief. I couldn't believe it was happening. I think this is something I never really thought could happen,” said JR Bornemann.

He said he was out of town when he learned his barn full of memorabilia was destroyed by fire Sunday afternoon in Williams Township.

“It was a 120-year-old barn. And we used it as a meeting place and to celebrate live theater,” Bornemann said.

He does lighting for various theater shows in central Michigan and throughout the state and has spent the last 15 years collecting stage sets.

“They brought all the pieces from Grand Rapids and Escanaba that they wanted to display in the barn as a souvenir,” Bornemann said.

He said the standards were thrown out after the games.

“I took those pieces and put them in a safe place so I can look at them and remember all the work that went into them,” he said.

But after police said a nearby farmer working in a field hit a rock and created a spark, the safe house for his nearly 100 sets, including staircases from “Dracula” and “Romeo and Juliet,” experienced her final act.

The fire destroyed numerous acres of farmland, including Bornemann's barn.

Related: A Bay Co. farmer loses 70 acres of corn to a fire one day before harvest

“I don't know. Maybe you'll meet everyone one last time today. But after that, let's just start flipping through and see if there's anything we can keep and try to remember what we lost ” he said.

TV5 spoke off-camera with a couple who said they lost their cabin in the fire. They wanted to thank the firefighters for saving their home.

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