Firefighters put out blaze burning cattle feed, tires

A fire burning a pile of cattle feed and tires sent large, black plumes of smoke into the air Tuesday evening east of Maricopa before crews extinguished the blaze.

Mark Boys, Maricopa Fire Department division chief, said workers on a dairy near Smith-Enke and Murphy roads, just north of the Volkswagen test track, were burning agricultural products about 60 feet away from a pit of silage, which is ground-up cattle fodder, earlier in the day. He said sparks from the burn likely carried on the wind and set the 12- to 14-foot-deep silage pile ablaze around 6 p.m.

The silage pile was covered by plastic sheeting weighted down by tires, which also caught fire and caused the thick smoke that was visible for miles.

Boys said fire officials were initially concerned about air quality and the toxicity of the fire due to the burning tire remnants.

“Those can be very toxic fires, but it turned out that it was more of a silage fire than a tire fire,” he said, adding that fire crews quickly pulled the plastic and rubber products away from the pile and then contained the fire.

Units from the Gila River and Ak-Chin Indian communities, as well as Gilbert, Phoenix and Chandler fire departments, all assisted in battling the blaze, which burned about a quarter of an acre.

Though the fire appears to be accidental, Boys said it shows how flammable the area around Maricopa can be during the hot and dry summer months.

“That’s exactly why the county has a county-wide burn ban on all permits, with the exception of agricultural permits, and they’re letting those expire,” he said.

Photo by Scott Bartle