A huge haystack at a large dairy in south Manteca literally went up in smoke on Monday.
The fire of undetermined origin started after the noon hour. Dark billowing smoke could be seen for miles around as it rose hundreds of feet into the air.
Firefighters from the Lathrop-Manteca Fire District with those from the Manteca City Fire Department in mutual aid responded to the emergency. But they could not save the tons of hay for winter cow feed. The fire was “pretty far gone when we got here,” said one of the firefighters who could only stand by and watch the cow-feed high-rise disintegrate in slow motion.
They could not save any of the hay bales, each weighing roughly a ton or more, either because to do so would have sent the fire to grow even bigger, explained Lathrop-Manteca Fire
Battalion Chief Larry Madoski. That was clearly demonstrated when the early arrivals of fire personnel tried to do exactly that.
Workers at the large dairy on West Ripon Road between Airport Way and Union Road barely managed to remove the tarp covering the tall pile of hay. That was quickly done with the help of farm vehicles that were deployed to pull the plastic tarps down.
The dairy has about 1,500 milking cows alone. The animals were safe in their corrals, which are about several yards away from the conflagration. No dairy structures were affected as well. The large pole barns filled to the rafters with winter feed were just a few yards away to the east of the pile on hay. They were not endangered at all because the wind was blowing the fire and smoke in the opposite direction.
The hay fire was still smoldering early in the evening. Neither fire personnel nor the owners of the dairy could hazard a gaze as to how long the fire will continue to smolder.