Friday, August 17 at 12:48 AM
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Smithfield fire and automatic aid companies were paged to respond to the report of a grass fire endangering structures in Benson. Responding units found a haystack was heavily involved and began suppression efforts.
Engine 50 of Newton Fire was requested by command as part of a call for additional units and was paged to respond. A few minutes later command requested a tender task force be assigned to the incident and Tender 50 was included on the first alarm tender task force units for this call.
Tender 50 and Engine 50 arrived with the other mutual aid companies and both of Newton’s units were assigned to water supply. Engine 50 setup a fill location at a hydrant a short distance from the fire and assisted in filling the tenders that were shuttling water to the scene.
When the overhaul of the salvageable hay was winding down water supply shifted from the tender shuttle operation to a hose lay from a hydrant directly to the scene and the tender task force companies were released.
Pictures:
A picture of the fire at 1:36 AM after Engine 50 and other units had arrived and were waiting assignment.
Engine 50 was assigned to support the tender task force units by managing the filling location to recycle tenders as quickly as possible. In this picture Newton FF Ray Wickham monitors the water level in Tender 50 during a stop at the filling location.
Newton fire fighter Reid Smith connects an adapter to a hose at the water supply fill location as the haystack fire burns in the background.
Tender 40 has just reached tank capacity during one stop at the tender task force filling location. 6 tenders were used to shuttle water from this fill location to the scene, with Engine 50 assisting the fill operation at a hydrant a short distance from the fire.
Picture of the fire at 5:28 AM when overhaul was mostly complete and the tender task force units were being released from their water supply assignment. A large pile of hay that was not salvageable continues to burn.
After sunrise the bales that could not be salvaged continue to smolder and will likely burn for most of the day.