The cause of a barn fire in rural New Ulm Saturday afternoon remains under investigation, although it is believed to have been started by a spark from a machine chopping straw. The fire in the Roger Mohr hoop barn on Brown County Road 24 started at around 2pm Saturday, and firefighters from New Ulm and Hanska spent around 5 hours on the scene before extinguishing the blaze. Upwards of 200 bales of cord and chopped straw were destroyed by the fire, but no injuries were reported, and no damage was reported outside of the structure. The spark from the straw-cutting machine is believed to have ignited the nearby bales.