Sibley, Iowa — Hay and a hay shed were damaged in a fire on Monday, June 19, 2017 near Sibley.
According to Sibley Fire Chief Ken Huls, about 5:00 PM, the Sibley Fire Department was called to the report of a hay shed fire at the home of Scott Julius at 1189 Oak Hill Avenue, two miles west and five miles north of Sibley.
The chief says the fire department saw the hay in the shed on fire as they approached the scene. He says the hay shed had an open front and was storing silage and haylage. He says the farmer had been grinding hay that day and the hay had started smoldering earlier in the day and he had been dousing it every so often. But Huls says it started getting away from him so they called the fire department.
Huls says he asked for the Little Rock department to be paged as well and both departments got to the scene about the same time. He says the Little Rock department provided extra water and manpower.
According to the chief, firefighters had to deal with heavy smoke. He says they got the smoke and flame knocked down, and then discovered that some of the building had been damaged, but they were able to save the building.
He says the owner also removed some of the hay from the building with a skid loader and they were able to cool it with water.
He says about 10 tons of hay was in the building and some sacks of feed were also destroyed, along with some of the steel siding. Chief Huls reports that there was about $7,500 damage.
Huls says no injuries were reported.
He says the cause of the fire appeared to be spontaneous combustion of wet hay.
He says they used 10,000 gallons of water to fight the fire, and crews were on scene for about two hours.
