Over 500 bales of hay catch fire at Arizona Dairy Farm in Mesa

Wednesday, September 8th, 2021

Over 500 bales of hay are on fire at the Arizona Dairy Farm near Elliott and Sossaman roads in Mesa.

Shawn Gilleland with Rural Metro says the fire started around 3 a.m. at the Arizona Dairy Farms Co-op Tuesday morning. Gilleland says there are around 500 bales of hay on fire and there are no injuries at this time.

3:16 Hay fire at Arizona dairy farm

“The hay back there is stocked about two stories high so we are talking very large bales of hay about 200 pounds of hay,” says Gilleland. “There is quite a bit of flame and a lot of heat and intensity. It will be burning for several hours.”

“Any fire is devastating,” said Justin Stewart, who owns Arizona Dairy Company. “I don’t care if it’s big or small, it’s devastating.” Stewart said the farm has been in his family for four generations.

0:40 RAW: Bales of hay catch on fire at Arizona dairy farm

“It means a lot,” said Stewart. “It’s my life.” It crushed him to see 160-thousand dollars worth of hay destroyed. “Seeing our hard work go up in flames, yeah, it’s very emotional.”

The investigation to what caused the fire is ongoing, but Gilleland said spontaneous combustion is what likely caused the fire.

“It’s spontaneous combustion when you get water and stuff down into organic material such as the hay, as it sits there and compacts, it actually starts to decompose,” said Gilleland. “It creates gases. It creates heat on its own.”

Stewart said employees on the farm will be monitoring the fire all day and night to make sure it does not spread.

Bales of hay catch on fire at Arizona Dairy Farm