In the early morning of April 5th in rural Ohio, fires were set at three nearby farms. All three targeted buildings were completely destroyed.

Investigators ruled one of the fires arson, while arson was ruled the "probable" cause of the other two. One of the targeted farms was a dairy farm.

All three buildings were considered a "complete loss," with destruction of farm equipment, hay and straw. Media coverage pointed out that no animals were hurt, and that none of the targeted buildings housed animals.

One farmer had this to say:
"What people don't understand is that for a farmer, that barn is sometimes more important than your house," Skinner said. "Thank God we didn't have any animals in the barn, thank God!"

The fires occurred at these addresses:

• 15253 Woodtown Rd., in Sunbury, at 6:08 a.m.
• 1915 state Route 605, in Sunbury, at 6:26 a.m.
• 4855 Miller-Paul Rd., in Westerville, at 6:52 a.m.

Although all the fires targeted only buildings where no animals were housed, there was nothing to immediately indicate they were the work of someone with an animal liberation motive.