The barn, built nearly 100 years ago, housed eight antique tractors, most dating to 1955 but one from 1926, still in working condition until the Sunday afternoon fire.
The house is inhabited by Watt’s daughter, Cheryl Duncan, and son-in-law, and suffered damage to the back wall siding closest to the barn.
Watt’s home, on the lot just east, also suffered some outside damage, but the home of his other daughter, who lives with her husband in the lot to the west, was fine.
It took six fire departments, led by Phillipsburg’s, to put out the fire, including units from Brookville, Verona, Lewisburg, West Milton and Clayton.
Watt, who used to farm the land himself after moving there 41 years ago, is also a retired supervisor at Miami Valley Career Technology Center and now hires out workers to plant corn on his 43 acres.
He had just finished mowing a portion of the land with a 100 International 1955 model tractor, put it away and went to work in the family garden just behind the railroad boxcar used as a shed between the barn and the garden.
By the time a son-in-law smelled smoke, it was too late.
Firefighters allowed Watt’s daughter, Duncan, who lived in the closest house, to gather a few things before they hosed down the inside to keep it from burning.
She grabbed her cat, computer and a basket of family photos, including those of a son who died at five weeks from a heart operation that went bad.
“He would have been 27 years old now,” Duncan said.
She said it because she knew, as bad as the fire was, it could have been worse.
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