The cause of a fire that destroyed two abandoned buildings south of Ames is still undetermined, but Ames Deputy Fire Chief Clint Petersen said the investigation will continue tomorrow.

Officials combed the site all afternoon Thursday but turned up few clues, Petersen said.

The blaze, which occurred at the Iowa State Animal Science Teaching Center, 3895 520th Ave., was discovered around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday by a worker at the poultry research facility across the road, said Bob Hibbings, agricultural specialist at the center.

Smoke was still streaming from blackened piles of hay around 5 p.m. Thursday.

The fire consumed an old corncrib, a storage shed and about 50 bales of hay, said Kevin Winchell, assistant chief of the Kelley Fire Department. There were no fatalities, and no animals were killed.

Winchell said he received an emergency call at 10:33 p.m., and when firefighters reached the scene, they found both buildings in flames.

“We laid out a line to protect a confinement building to the north and to cool down the buildings that were on fire,” he said.

Winchell was initially concerned that an overhead electric line would be ignited, but he said the flames were slowed down and finally extinguished around 12:30 a.m.

The hay bales also presented a problem for firefighters. Even though there were no external flames, Winchell said, the hay at the interior of the bales had become flammable cinders.

To prevent any further danger, endloaders were used to break apart the bales, and the red-hot hay was doused with water.

“We’d have been back out there if we wouldn’t have done that. They would have rekindled,” Winchell said.

Hibbings stayed on the scene all night to watch for any more flames.

“When I got there … it looked entirely engulfed, just a raging fire,” he said. “The hay inside the machine shed had caught on fire also.”

The animal science department had been using the buildings, but Hibbings said no machinery or other equipment was destroyed.

“The buildings aren’t that big of a loss, but we’d like to have the capabilities of storing our hay inside, and that’s lost,” he said.

No replacement will be built on the site, in part because it would cost about $10,000, Hibbings said.

Petersen said there was “no indication” that Wednesday’s fire was connected to an Oct. 10 fire, which also damaged university property. That blaze killed two boars and destroyed one barn at the North Woodruff farm southwest of Ames.

Petersen also said arson is not suspected in Wednesday’s fire at this time.

“It’s unbelievable,” Hibbings said. “We just lost the Woodruff barn two months ago, and neither of them have a good cause. There’s no explanation.”

Three other fire departments — Huxley, Gilbert and Slater — assisted Ames and Kelley firefighters. In all, about 15 vehicles were at the fire.