Cache County farmer loses 20 tons of straw in fire

By Cimaron Neugebauer

| The Salt Lake Tribune

First Published Aug 01 2012 07:39 pm • Last Updated Aug 01 2012 07:39 pm

A Richmond farmer lost a season’s worth of straw in a few hours on Tuesday morning at his recently harvested field in Cache County.

The driver of a flatbed semi-truck had 20 tons of straw bales loaded onto the trailer at the farm located at 700 S. 250 East, according to Cache County Fire Marshal Jason Winn.

At 10 a.m. the driver left the truck idling and went to get the farm owner to help unload the straw. While he was gone, the load caught fire.

"The exhaust stacks on the top of the truck caught the top bale on fire," Winn said.

Firefighters from several local agencies responded but weren’t able to stop the fire before it smoked through 20 tons of straw and destroyed the semi trailer. Estimated damage for the older model trailer and straw was $15,000. One structure was threatened during the fire, but fire crews were able to keep the blaze from spreading.

There were no injuries in the fire.

cimaron@sltrib.com

Twitter: @CimCity

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