The demolition of an Ohio State barn happened earlier than expected Friday. A vacant building – the Pavey Barn – caught fire in the morning hours.

The Pavey Barn was located on the corner of Lane Avenue and Kenny Road. A number of emergency systems responded including the Columbus Fire and Police Departments, the University Police and the State Fire Marshall.

Renny Komula, from the Ohio State Department of Public Safety, said the barn was scheduled to be demolished but was not sure when it was supposed to take place.

“The building had originally been assigned to the agriculture department but had been turned back over to physical facilities,” Komula said.

The university had been using the barn for storage at one point in time but anything of value had been removed.

Firefighters responded to the flames around 8:45 a.m., Capt. Jim Lewis said. Lewis was riding as part of Battalion 3.

“We don’t know the cause of the fire,” Lewis said. “Everyone around saw the same thing around the same time. This thing just lit off, and we are not sure why or how.”

No one is thought to have been injured in the fire. Investigators went through the building and rubble to make sure no human remains were inside.

“Until we go through it systematically we don’t know for sure,” Lewis said Friday. “There is a known vagrant living in the area, so we will make sure no one was in there.”

The barn was a state building, so state investigators had to come in to try and determine a cause for the fire, Lewis said.

Because of the location of Pavey Barn firefighters had to treat it like a rural fire, Lewis said. No fire hydrants were near the building, so numerous trucks holding water were called in. It took a while to distinguish the flames and eventually the firefighters had to allow the bottom coals to burn out on their own, Lewis said.

At times it looked as though the fire was set as a controlled fire because so many firefighters were standing around watching the flames instead of attempting to extinguish them.

The fire started inside the building at the far east end, Lewis said. There is a small amount of electricity going through the barn, but it is unknown if that was the cause.

“There are no known hazardous materials in the building,” Komula said.