BENTONVILLE, Ark. — For several days now, a barn fire right off Highway 72 between Bentonville and Pea Ridge has been catching the attention of many drivers.
The Pea Ridge Fire Department (PRFD) has been fighting the fire at Jac’s Ranch all week. They say the cause of the fire is hay, and hay fires take a long time to put out.
PRFD Chief Clint Bowen says his department sees hay fires more often during rainy summers like this one.
“As the hay is stacked closely together, it compacts, and as that starts to mildew, bacteria starts to break it down,” Bowen said. “In that moisture, it builds up enough heat to where it finally starts to combust.”
Then, he says, the heat from that combustion dries out the rest of the hay, creating a perfect environment for a fire that just keeps reigniting.
“It could take up to a week for it to burn. We've had several of them that have gone a week or maybe a little bit longer,” Bowen said.
Being a farmer himself, Chief Bowen says he also understands what this means for the ranch.
“Hay has just skyrocketed over the last few years as far as prices,” Bowen said. "With how many [bales] were in that barn... it's definitely a small fortune. I mean, it's very devastating.”
Chief Bowen says hay fires are not only financially damaging, but they can also cause problems as the ranch looks to the future.
“There’s a lot of planning that goes into that,” Bowen said. “You look at each head of cow … and if you’ve already made your plans, and you’ve already got ‘x’ number of tons of your roughage taken care of to get them through the wintertime, well, now you don’t. You’re starting all over again.”
Now that the fire is contained, Chief Bowen says all they can do is monitor and wait.
“We make sure the ground is super wet around and make sure there's not a huge ember or wind problem,” Bowen said. “… We have some great guys from the ranch out there who are gonna sit there and basically babysit it for us, and they'll keep an eye on it.”
He says now, more of a safety concern than the fire is slowdowns on the highway as people stop to look.
“Try to keep your eyes on the road. Obviously try to maintain the speed limit, and just drive safely because that was catastrophic enough to deal with right there. We don't want to deal with any car wrecks also,” Bowen said.
Chief Bowen says his department has received many calls from the community about the fire.
He says they appreciate the concern, and they’ll continue to keep an eye on it as it goes down.
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