Deer damages Batavia fire station

Batavia firefighters found themselves dealing with an emergency in their own house Wednesday morning, when a deer got into Station 2, 1400 W. Main St.

According to Batavia Fire Battalion Chief Randall Banker, the deer crashed through a lobby window around 4 a.m. The narrow window is alongside the entry door. It moved around the lobby for a few minutes, then left through the broken window, Banker said. It ran into cornfields west of the station.

Firefighters, who were sleeping on the second floor, were awakened by the commotion, but the deer had left by the time they got downstairs, he said. Banker said it appeared the deer had cut itself. “He was not doing too good,” Banker said.

The deer did about $2,000 damage to the window, doors, carpeting and furniture. It put two large holes in a wall, one right by a doorbell.

The station abuts the cornfields of the Mooseheart campus; the campus also has a lake and woods. Banker said it is not unusual to see deer at the fire station, and that a coyote recently came right up to the station.