Amid a season of many hay and barn fires, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) has issued a warning, citing an increased risk of hay fires.
Hay that's cut too green or too wet has a natural process that can cause it to spontaneously combust, potentially igniting other bales around it, and quickly getting out of hand.
"If it's put away baled wet or too green, it's a process of curing," said Kent Readman, fire chief for Huron East and North Huron and Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs (OAFC) board of directors member. "When it's drying out in the bale, it actually generates heat by the drying process. That heat builds up within the bale, or within the barn, or multiple bales, then it can eventually ignite and start a fire."
Readman added when the curing process is happened and that bale is next to a dry one, a fire can easily ignite if farmers aren't cautious.
"Farmers have a moisture content they're looking for to bale their hay at," said Readman. "The lower the moisture content, the better it is from a fire perspective. If they do have to bail at a higher moisture content, they should be checking the temperature for the first 10 to 14 days. In most cases, that's when spontaneous combustion happens."
A reason for baling before the moisture content is lowered could be because there's rain coming, causing the crop to be even wetter. Readman said combustion doesn't happen instantaneously. If farmers monitor it over the first two weeks, they will typically see the rise.
"Once it hits a certain range, they can consider moving it out of the barn and spreading it out, giving it some air so it can naturally cool off," he said. "Once it's hitting that 200 degree Fahrenheit mark, they should be calling us and not moving the hay because once it's that hot, if they move it and open it up to more oxygen, then it will speed up the fire."
If your local fire department is aware, they can come, be prepared to help, and monitor while that hot bale is moved out.
Due to the dry nature of hay, it can quickly ignite.
"[Hay fires] are very challenging," said Readman. "The bales are purposely bailed very compact and dense to fit a lot of hay to try and make it take up as little room as possible."
The fire will start in the middle, where the hay bale gets less air, or there's a higher moisture cotent.
"That's a deep-seeded fire," he said. "The only way for us to access it is to get those bales out of wherever they are, break them up, spread them out over a large area, then that way we can put water on them. It does take a significant amount of time and a significant amount of resources as far as firefighters, trucks, heavy equipment, and you need a lot of room."
Without spreading everything apart, Readman said there will always be little smoldering pockets within the hay. Pulling it apart is the safest and most efficient way to make sure it won't reignite.
"With any fire, we just want to remind people that their safety is the number one priority," he said. "Once there is a fire, stay away from it, give us a call, let us do our thing. Human life is our number one priority. We just want to make sure everyone's safe and don't try to do anything that's going to put your life in jeopardy."