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"Six-alarm" fire ravages Simplot feedlot
A "six-alarm" fire broke out early Saturday morning at the Simplot feedlot just outside of Grand View, destroying the facility's feed shed and approximately 500 tons of hay.
Flames more than 100 feet high roared into the sky during the night as elements of six area firefighting departments battled to contain the blaze and prevent additional damage to one of the nation's largest feedlot operations.
The fire was first spotted by a night watchman at about 2:40 a.m. Feedlot manager Dick Crockett called Assistant Grand View Fire Chief Charly Starbuck, who works at Simplot, and Starbuck immediately began alerting other firefighters.
Grand View Fire Chief Terry Carothers said when he left his home he could see the flames and knew immediately that his 15-man department was going to need help.
"When I got there, the (metal feeding) shed was already melting and falling in," he said. "Everything was fully involved."
The call went out to other fire departments in the area, and by 3 a.m. elements of the Mountain Home city and rural departments, the Bruneau fire department, the Glenns Ferry fire department, the Bureau of Land management and the airbase fire crews were on their way.
In addition, the Mountain Home Highway District and the Simplot facility contributed crucially needed water tankers to help fight the fire. The four-inch water lines at the facility were inadequate to meet the needs of the fire crews, which used an estimated 1.8 million gallons of water to extinguish the fire. "The first hour was a fiasco," he admitted, "while we tried to figure out how to get enough water on the structures." The arrival of the additional water trucks alleviated that problem considerably.
Carothers said that it was immediately apparent the feed shed could not be saved, "so we concentrated on trying to save everything else. Our first priority was to save the feed system."
Only yards from the blaze sat the feed distribution towers. "If we'd lost those, we'd have been in a lot of trouble," admitted Simplot manager Tom Basabe, who said when he arrived at 2:50 the shed was fully engulfed in flame.
Basabe said Monday he believed the fire began somewhere in the electrical system in the shed, although that had not been confirmed and other theories also were being explored.
The shed is used to mix hay with grain from the nearby silos and features a number of cutting and mixing machines to prepare the feed for the cattle.
Since no one was hurt, Basabe's priority became feeding the 90,000 head of cattle currently at the feedlot, a job that usually begins at about 7 a.m. Despite the fire, Simplot crews were delayed only three hours, beginning the feeding operations by 10 a.m. even as fire crews continued to battle the blaze.
"Those fire departments did a heck of a job, and I appreciate it," he said. "It was pretty intense for about five hours."
Basabe said the feedlot lost between 400 and 500 tons of hay and the feed shed, a total loss he estimated at about $200,000.
Carothers said that in all, about 75 firemen helped his department battle the blaze.
By mid-day Saturday, as the main fire had been knocked down and firemen were working to clean up hot spots and keep the small mountain of hay from flaring up, he began releasing some of the crews, but the base fire department stayed on scene until the fire was completely out and clean-up had been completed at about 10 p.m.
Carothers admitted to a certain amount of luck in fighting the fire. "Really, we didn't have much wind. If we had, and it had started swirling, it could have been very bad" with thousands of tons of hay stacked in the immediate vicinity of the stack that had caught fire, some less than 50 yards away. "We saved what we could," he said.
Simplot crews worked to move the hay while the fire was being fought, and front-end loaders helped remove soaked and charred hay from the stack that burned.
Carothers said the last time his department had dealt with a fire that large was in the 1970s when a shop building at the Simplot site burned down. "I don't want any more this big," he said.
At the same time, he offered his thanks to all the fire departments that responded to his call for assistance. "You sure know who your friends are," he said in appreciation.
Mountain Home Fire Chief Phil Gridley gave credit to Carothers for his quick call for aid.
"A lot of times, these small departments, they're reluctant to call for help. Terry didn't. He made the call right away and it was a good call" to do it, he said.