HAMER, Idaho (KIFI) — Fire crews are continuing to battle a massive haystack fire that ignited Monday in Jefferson County.
Teams from 11 different agencies are working to prevent the fire from spreading to the nearby Camas National Wildlife Refuge – 11,000 acres of protected sensitive habitat, located about a quarter mile away.
“We’re trying to keep [the fire] off of the refuge,” said Hamer Fire Chief Scott Jacobs. “Right now, we’re only about a quarter to a half mile south on the south end of the Camas Refuge. So if we get into that brush and that grass, it’ll take off, and then we’ll end up in some houses. Right now, we’ve got everything contained here, and we’re just fingers crossed we’ll keep it here.”
The fire ignited when electricity arced from a power pole into a 10-bale high stack of straw at 2000 North 2300 East in Hamer around 12:30 PM Monday.
“The wind picked up, power lines clapped together, arched into the straw bales, and from there, it all went up south there,” Jacobs said.
Eight hundred calves were bedded down next to the giant, U-shaped straw stack.
One calf died when a burning stack of straw collapsed on top of it, but no other calves were killed, a firefighter reported.
Fanned by gusts of wind exceeding 50 miles per hour, the fire quickly spread from the straw bales to other adjacent stacks of hay and straw.
Four power poles were burned in the flames, knocking out electricity in nearby Hamer.
Fire fighters had to lift the fire station’s garage doors by hand.
All ditches in the area are dry, and the response teams urgently fought to contain the flames and prevent the fire from spreading to the Camas National Wildlife Refuge.
Crews are expected to work throughout the night.
“We’’re just trying to keep everything out of the silage pile,” Jacobs said.
