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Sam Penrod Reporting A devastating fire overnight caused hundreds of thousands of dollars to an Idaho dairy. The fire was in Dayton, Idaho, just west of Preston and over the Utah, Idaho line.
A hay barn and 16-hundred tons of hay was lost in the fire, but is was the effort of nearby friends and neighbors who helped the owners move other hay bales away that kept the fire from destroying the future of the family-owned dairy.
Smoke fills the air in Dayton, Idaho, more than 24 hours after a fire broke out in the giant haystack at the Oxford Mountain Dairy. Yesterday afternoon, Logan Checketts smelled smoke and could see flames coming from the hay stack.
Logan Checketts, Oxford Mountain Dairy: "There were a lot of flames on top of the shed. The wind was blowing, the flames went on top of the shed as quick as can be."
Firefighters traveled for miles to battle the blaze, but it was tough to get close to the intense flames.
Ty Checketts, Oxford Mountain Dairy: "It was so hot, there was no way you could get between the two sheds. You can see the I-beams, twenty inch I-beams warped and melted, from the heat. The heat was so intense and you couldn't get within 100 feet of the fire."
The Checketts run a large dairy operation. There are 23-hundred cows and the milking operation runs 24 hours a day. That's why they store so much hay.
Just a few feet from the fire was another barn, completely full of hay, but friends and neighbors cleared it out in just 14 hours.
Ty Checketts, Oxford Mountain Dairy: "We had people drive as far as 60 miles with semi's last night to work with us; we had strangers show up, they worked all night long."
But with insurance and some extra hay in storage, the Checketts believe they will survive this terrible fire.
Ty Checketts, Oxford Mountain Dairy: "We do our best to take care of our cows; we love our cows and our way of life."
The cause of the fire is still under investigation and firefighters say it may smolder for up to two weeks before it burns itself out.
