PERU – A late Monday night blaze destroyed a Lacroix Road barn, farmhouse, 10 cords of fire wood, 5,000 bales of hay, and several antiques.

Assistant fire Chief Tim Holland estimated a $200,000 loss to farm owners Maurice and Marie Lacroix Jr. The property wasn’t insured.

The couple’s dog and several cats, along with two roosters housed next to the home, escaped injury. Several head of Hereford cattle owned by Lacroix were grazing in a nearby field.

Holland said Marie Lacroix saw flames coming from the detached barn at around 11:30 p.m.

He said the barn was engulfed with flames when nearly four dozen firefighters from eight fire departments arrived on the scene a few minutes later.

He believes the fire, which started in the barn, may have started by spontaneous combustion in the baled hay. He does not believe the fire is suspicious.

A state fire marshal’s investigator was on the scene Tuesday.

The farm, built in the mid-19th century on 486 acres between Tumbledown Dick and Black mountains at the end of a dirt road, was purchased in the 1940s by Maurice Lacroix Sr.

A World War II veteran, he acquired a WWII-era Jeep that was destroyed by the fire, said family friend and sometimes employee Scott Taylor of Dixfield.

He said the couple were married on May 10, 2008, on the property. Taylor, and his brother, Corey, were able to save some of the Lacroix’s photographs.

Also lost in the first were several antiques inside the house, an antique tractor next to the barn, a windmill located atop the barn, an antique sleigh, and solar panels.

Holland said firefighters shuttled water taken from Spear Stream from the intersection of Dickvale and Lacroix roads. They were at the scene until late Tuesday morning. Holland said his department will continue to check on the smoldering remains for a few days.

Firefighters from Peru, Dixfield, Canton, Mexico, Rumford, East Dixfield, Roxbury and Woodstock, along with medical personnel from Med-Care Ambulance Service responded. Members and equipment from the Andover Fire Department served as back-up at the Rumford fire station.

The couple is staying in an A-frame camp on the property, he said.