CROGHAN — Three weeks after fire destroyed a Brewery Road barn owned by Joseph T. Lyndaker, scores of volunteers already have begun rebuilding it.

And, while three heifers were lost in the blaze, the family's calves were spared, including one that survived a night in the burning structure.

"Everybody's talking about it," said Mr. Lyndaker's wife, Brenda L.

About 12 hours after the fire began on the afternoon of July 30, two of Mr. Lyndaker's brothers saw the calf walk out of the barn. It apparently was able to find a safe spot in the manger, near the milkhouse, Mrs. Lyndaker said.

The calf, along with the rest of the displaced herd, initially was taken to the Lyndakers' home farm on Main Street in the village. The animals are now being housed at the Thomas Pate farm on Old State Road.

While initially weak, the calf — whose mother was from a set of triplet heifers the Lyndakers bought from Allan and Kathy Farney in June 2006 — has since recovered quite well, Mrs. Lyndaker said. "I think it's going to be really spoiled, because we're treating it top notch," she said.

The Lyndakers purchased the Brewery Road farm from the Farneys in January after leasing it for a year and a half.

About 60 men and boys last Thursday took part in a barn-raising at the Mennonite family's farm.

"It went up fast," Mrs. Lyndaker said. "They had the rafters almost all up by dinner."

A group of local Amish also plan to help out this week, Mrs. Lyndaker said.

While the structure should be rebuilt relatively quickly, it will take at least a month to get a new milk tank, meaning operations probably won't resume at the farm until this fall, she said.

Along with the heifers, about 18,000 bales of hay were lost in the blaze. "But that was nothing compared to what we could have lost," Mrs. Lyndaker said.

The family thanked firefighters, relatives, friends and neighbors for their support over the past few weeks.

Lewis County fire officials said the blaze started in the haymow and appeared to be electrical, but they were unable to pinpoint an exact cause.

A fire in April also destroyed a storage barn, containing a workshop, at the Lyndakers' farm in the village.