WESTERLO — An early morning fire on Monday completely destroyed a barn and killed two pigs and their piglets.

The building on Dunbar Hollow Road in Westerlo, used as a barn, was once a farmhouse, said Tom Diederich, the Westerlo Volunteer Fire Company chief.

“The building was pretty much to the ground,” he said. Two pigs and their piglets living the barn died in the fire, he said.

Sheriff’s Inspector J.T. Campbell said that one of the pigs had given birth to piglets and were moved to the building with the heat lamp to keep warm. The lamp ultimately caused the fire, he said.

Diederich said that the Onesquethaw Volunteer Fire Company was initially called at 4:51 a.m. after a Westerlo resident saw flames in the east, toward where Onesquethaw’s fire district begins. The building was in fact the last one located in Westerlo’s fire district before Onesquethaw’s, and so Westerlo arrived as well, at 5:02 a.m., shortly after Onesquethaw, said Diederich.

Firefighters were at the scene until 10:30 a.m., he said.

The Onesquethaw Volunteer Fire Company also responded; and the Berne Fire Volunteer Fire Company and East Berne Volunteer Fire Company provided tanker trucks to transport water, said Diederich.

The Albany County Sheriff’s Emergency Medical Services and Westerlo Rescue Squad were also on the scene to respond to any possible injuries, and the Westerlo Highway Department also arrived to de-ice the roads and put down sand, he said.

The property, located at 222 Dunbar Hollow Road, has a full-market value of $155,000, according to the Albany County assessment rolls.