It took Abbotsford crews four and a half hours to extinguish a fire in a large pile of hog fuel on Thursday night.
Abbotsford Fire Rescue Service (AFRS) was called to the blaze just before 10 p.m. at 140 Mt. Lehman Rd.
Assistant Fire Chief Dave Rivett said that, when crews arrived, there was a deep-seated fire in a 10-metre-high pile of hog fuel in a farmer’s field.
“This type of fire is extremely difficult to extinguish … Fortunately, there were no buildings in close proximity,” he said.
The property is in a rural area with no fire hydrants, and this resulted in AFRS having to shuttle water from a hydrant near the Abbotsford Airport.
Two AFRS engines and four water tenders/tankers responded to the incident, with a total of 20 firefighters. There were no injuries.
Rivett said the suspected cause of the blaze is spontaneous combustion of the wet hog fuel.
