ARARAT - Fire crews from around the region worked through the night earlier this week to secure a fire that engulfed a truck carting hay.
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A B-double truck carting a large load of hay was parked in Campbell Street just after 1am on Tuesday morning, with the 37-year-old driver asleep in his cabin.
Country Fire Authority District 16 operations officer Ross Anderson said once alerted to the fire the driver was able to remove his prime mover from the trailer, which left the burning trailer situated underneath power lines.
"The burning trailer was parked under the main power supply to the prison, but the brigade was able to suppress the flames so there wasn't damage to any of the wires," Mr Anderson said.
"It was under control within the first half-an-hour but it took nearly eight hours to complete the job."
CFA headquarters was notified at approximately 1.19am, with a section of Campbell Street was closed to traffic for several hours before reopening at about 10am on Tuesday morning.
Police are not treating the cause of the fire as suspicious and while Mr Anderson said the cause is still unknown, he said it was likely to have been triggered by spontaneous combustion within the hay bales.
The estimated value of the hay destroyed is $7000.
"Not all the straw was damaged but it was pretty much all contaminated by smoke," Mr Anderson said.
"The front trailer was also damaged pretty badly, I would say beyond repair, but the rear trailer was able to be saved and there was no damage to the surrounding road or any of the power lines."
Mr Anderson said it was a fairly big response with the Ararat Fire Brigade attending the scene with three appliances, while Great Western was the first to respond to the job
"They were relieved at about 6am by crews from Pomonal, Moyston, Langi Logan and Beaufort," he said.
"It required a lot of man power, there were about 40 people there most of the time including three tip trucks and a street sweeper to cart away the straw, water board to ensure quality of water, Tenix Power Company and Ararat Police.
"The brigade did an excellent job in managing the task. At some stage there was some concern of smoke getting into the hospital but crews were able to minimise that and not have it affect any surrounding properties either."
Mr Anderson said no properties came under threat from the fire at any stage during the incident.