Community
15 November, 2024
Silage stack fire prompts warning
THE Country Fire Authority (CFA) is reminding farmers to keep an eye on their silage and hay bales following a spontaneous combustion of a hay stack on Wednesday.
Four CFA units from Camperdown, Boorcan, Bookaar and Chocolyn responded to a Bookaar property on Newminister Road at 9.13am.
Crews discovered a haybale fire in a silage pit, which is believed to be over 12 months old, with 30 bales affected.
Incident controller Andrew Duynhoven said there was no known reason for the stack to self-combust.
“The stack itself is still half there, but it’s burnt into the rest of the stack,” he said.
“We pulled out all the hay bales that were not on fire to gain access to the next set of rows.
“Once we’ve pulled it apart, we called on another water tanker – we needed lots of water once it opened up.”
CFA members borrowed tractors to remove unburnt hay from the stack, with an excavator called on scene to assist in removing smoldering and burnt bales to access the main fire.
Mr Duynhoven said the incident was a “classic example” of spontaneous combustion of hay bales.
“This stack is over 12 months old, so why it’s combusting now I don’t know – maybe a bit of water we had the other day has provided the moisture to self-combust,” he said.
“Leading forward with all the cereal crops that have failed and are being turned into hay, it’s a perfect recipe for self-combustion of sugars in cereal hay.
“They’re renowned for going up.
“Be vigilant – keep checking those stacks and making sure there’s no heat.”
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