Just when some farmers tested the limits of their crops without rain, others enjoyed the dry conditions for hay.

When the rain began pouring last week, few thought about spontaneous combustion of already baled hay. Rain and moisture contribute to that possibility.

Craig Kluttz of 608 Yost Road knew the temperature had risen in his rolled hay bundles, and he figured some bales must have gotten wet from the recent rain.

He’d been watching it. Even when it caught fire Thursday afternoon, he was working in the barn.

“I was working in the barn when the corner started to catch fire,” Kluttz said. “By the time I got to the house to dial 911, the whole thing was up in flames.”

Kluttz stored his entire hay harvest in the barn. With the loss of the winter’s feed and the barn, Kluttz estimates his uninsured losses around $25,000.

Spontaneous combustion, said Bostian Heights Volunteer Fire Department Chief Mike Zimmerman, occurs when there’s too much moisture in baled hay or straw. Farmers have moisture sensors on their balers to ensure the crop for feed.

If the moisture content rises above 25 percent, the threat for combustion rises. Mix that in with the sun’s heat, and farmers have the mix for fire.

Bostian Heights Fire Department got the call around 1:20 p.m. Five other volunteer fire departments came out for the call: Faith, Locke, China Grove, South Salisbury and Rural Rockwell.

When firefighters arrived on the scene, Kluttz had already pulled out several burning bales.

“He was tearing bales apart,” Zimmerman said. “He was trying to get it out before it got into a lot of the bales. He had several bales out in the pasture burning when we got there that he had hauled out. He was trying his best to get them out before it caught the rest of the bales on fire.”

As for the barn, Zimmerman said firefighters did save some of the structure. “The majority of it was gone. We were able to make a save on one end of it, and we were able to stop the progression of the fire.”

To stop the fire, firefighters had to take tractors and dig the bales out. They moved the bales away from the barn, tore them apart and doused them with water.

Firefighters remained at the scene from 1:20 to about 9:30 p.m.

At the scene, Kluttz said some of the barn timbers came from the old Spencer Shops when they were doing construction work there.

“It’s a real shame,” Kluttz said. “They are all doing a good job, but once a hay fire starts, you can’t really deter it. It’s upsetting to see it happen, but my daddy used to say, `If you don’t have it, then you can’t lose it.’”