Fire destroys 300 tons of hay at Vancouver dairy

Firefighters spent most of the day Thursday at the scene of a fire that destroyed about 300 tons of hay at a dairy farm in east Vancouver.

Firefighters rushed to the scene of the blaze at Andersen Dairy, 4507 N.E. 162nd Ave., just before 5 a.m. Thursday.

Crews extinguished the flames, but fire crews were kept busy throughout the morning and into the afternoon extinguishing smoldering hay.

“The fire burrows down … it smolders, and it’s really hard to put out,” Clark County Deputy Fire Marshal Curtis Eavenson said. “Crews are having to tear the pile of hay bales apart with heavy equipment.”

Damage to the concrete barn was minimal, Eavenson said, but the alfalfa hay that was lost was worth just over $100,000.

Eavenson said the fire was likely an accident; however the exact cause is still under investigation.