Cozad Volunteer Fire Department responded to a large hay bale fire on Saturday, May 25th on road 756 and 419 south of Cozad. Fire crews received the call at 2:22 pm and arrived on scene with two pumpers, one tanker, around a dozen for manpower along with farmers with tractors and payloaders helping to move the bales.
Assistant Fire Chief Gary Banzhaf says the farmers worked to spread out the burning bales and pile the bales that weren’t burning away from the area. He adds the fire crew helped keep the hydraulics cooled on the tractors and payloaders.
Banzhaf issued the owner of the bales a burn permit that evening to allow the bales to burn out completely, as they will smolder for multiple days. Banzhaf says they were called out a second time that next morning with the same amount of manpower and rigs, as the pile of bales that weren’t burned in the original call had caught fire.
It was reported about 2,500 bales were lost with around 2,500 saved. The exact cause of the fire is unknown, but it is believed it was either from a lightning strike the night before or spontaneous combustion.
Banzhaf thanked the neighboring farmers for their aid in fighting the fire and getting bales moved.
