Spontaneous fire causes $50,000 damage

A hay stack fire caused about $50,000 in damage at 3:40 a.m. Tuesday.

The Idaho Falls Fire Department was called to the area of 5590 East Sunnyside Road. 250 tons of hay and one tractor were destroyed. The family believe it could be closer to 3-400 tons.

“There’s all these lights a flashing and the hay stacks all lit up,” said Geneva Butler, her son runs the property that caught on fire. Her and her husband Ralph live across the street and were sleeping when the fire started.

Their son and daughter technically own the land and their son spent most of the day working with firefighters to put it out.

Investigators believe the fire started spontaneously. “it’s sickening,” said Butler

Firefighters contained the fire and kept it from spreading to a nearby grain field to the north and houses to the east. Crews planned to remain on the scene Tuesday to extinguish hot spots.