ST. GEORGE — A barn full of hay in Beryl went up in flames Monday evening. 

The Enterprise Fire Department was the first agency to respond when the call came in just after 6 p.m. near 2809 N. Beryl Highway in western Iron County. The Beryl Fire Department also responded.

Enterprise Fire Chief Brenden Moody said investigators are still unsure how the fire was started, noting that the hay barn was fully engulfed when responders arrived. 

The fire had spread to nearby weeds and was moving toward other structures when crews arrived. Firefighters quickly put out the small fires and began the process of fighting the barn fire. 

The barn, which is used to store hay before selling, contained a forklift and a semitractor-trailer, in addition to the hay bales, all of which burned.

Firefighters were still on scene around 8 p.m. Monday. Moody said they would likely remain on scene for another 4-5 hours because hay fires are difficult to put out.

“The problem with hay fires is you can’t just put water on them, they don’t go out,” Moody said. “You’ve got to actually pull the hay out of the barn and spray it as you’re pulling it out.” 

Firefighters received assistance from nearby farmers who used their farming equipment to pull the hay out of the barn. 

“In responses like this, we get a lot of help from the farmers around here with equipment,” Moody said. “And they all have water trucks so we have a lot of resources out here.” 

Because there were no nearby water sources, responders had to haul water 15 miles to the scene using five water tenders, which can carry 5,000-6,000 gallons of water each. 

Responders had successfully knocked all of the hay down within the barn and were working to extinguish hotspots at the time of this report.

Ed. note: On first publish, this report included an inaccurate estimate of the amount of hay involved in the fire.

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