Smoke could be seen and smelled for miles in Ridgefield after crews extinguished a fire at a large dairy complex that destroyed a hay barn early Wednesday morning.
Firefighters were called to 23117 N.W. Hillhurst Road just after 2 a.m. and arriving crews found a well-involved fire at a hay barn, Clark County Fire & Rescue spokesman Tim Dawdy said. “It was putting out an impressive amount of fire and smoke,” he said.
Firefighters called for a second alarm, sending more crews to the blaze. Clark County Fire District 3, Clark County Fire District 6, Vancouver Fire Department and Cowlitz County Fire District 1 all assisted at the scene.
Other buildings and farm equipment scattered about the 80-plus-acre property were in danger of also being damaged by the flames, Dawdy said, including an adjacent barn full of cows.
Because there were no fire hydrants nearby, crews had to shuttle water in tenders from Ridgefield High School, Dawdy said. It took about 45 minutes, but crews were able to bring the fire under control and prevented it from spreading, Dawdy said.
No cows were injured in the blaze.
Firefighters remained on scene for more than 12 hours putting out hotspots, an involved process.
Farmworkers wearing masks used excavators to pick up and spread out the hay bales while firefighters used hose lines to spray the smoldering hay as it fell from the buckets. As crews worked, heavy smoke shifted with the wind, making it hard to see more than five feet.
The hay barn, which was about 150 feet by 80 feet, was a total loss, Dawdy said.
The barn was worth an estimated $135,000 and inside the barn was about 140 tons of hay, which was worth an estimated $21,000, Clark County Deputy Fire Marshal Susan Anderson said.
County records list the property owner as Arthur E. and Wanita M. Kennedy Trustees.
The hay was used to feed the cows and was also sold to outside customers.
Anderson said that she is still gathering information to determine the likelihood that spontaneous heating in the hay caused the fire, so the cause remains under investigation.
The smell of smoke was noticed throughout the county.
The Southwest Clean Air Agency keeps air monitors throughout the county, but doesn’t have one in Ridgefield, chief engineer Paul Mairose said.
The monitor in Vancouver saw a slight bump in the amount of harmful particles in the air Wednesday morning; however, it remained within the “good” range.
Mairose said that those closest to the fire likely felt an impact — especially if they are young, elderly or have asthma — but that it is good that the blaze was put out so quickly. It takes prolonged exposure to see any observable health effects, he said.
“While it was a sizeable barn and a lot of hay, in the big picture it’s reasonably small compared to a forest fire and the amount of smoke a forest fire puts out,” he said.
