RYDER – A California man has died after a barn collapsed as he and others were battling a grass fire on a farm near Ryder on Sunday.

According to the Ward County Sheriff’s Department, deputies and firefighters with the Ryder Rural Fire Department responded to a report of a grass fire at the farm. The fire spread quickly to a nearby barn which was soon fully engulfed.

Larry Russel Johansen, of Eldorado Hills, California, and formerly of Ryder, was battling the grass fire along with other family members when the barn collapsed on him. The sheriff’s department reports Johansen did not survive.

“The Ward County Sheriff’s Department extends its deepest sympathies to the Johansen family and members of the Ryder community who knew Larry,” Ward County Sheriff Robert Roed said in a statement.