Collapsing walls caused a tin roof to fall on thousands of bales of hay during an early morning fire near Castalia.
Shortly after midnight on Aug. 25, Nash County 911 Center was receiving calls for a building fire on Lancaster Store Road in the Castalia area of Nash County. Station 7 (Castalia Fire Co.) along with Station 17 (Momeyer Fire Co.) and Station 6 (Spring Hope Fire Co.) and Nash County EMS units were dispatched.
Castalia crews reported that they had a large 40-by-170-foot storage building heavily involved with fire. The 15-foot tall building had a tin roof and housed over 20,000 bales of hay along with four tractors and farm equipment.
There were no fire hydrants for water supply within a mile from the fire and the incident commander requested additional tankers to be dispatched. Companies from Station 14 (Nashville Fire Co.) along with two department from Franklin County (Justice and White Level) were dispatched.
Dump tanks were now being placed on the rural road making it very difficult for the tankers to shuttle back and forth and they had to travel over one mile to the nearest fire hydrant.
Within 30 minutes the side walls collapsed and caused the tin roof to collapse on top of the hay, making it almost impossible for the firefighters to put water on the burning bales.
Six hoselines worked the fire but firefighters found that the water used to extinguish the fire hit the tin roof and turned to steam.
Crews were able to save a nearby storage shed.
The fire was placed under control shortly after 3 a.m.
The Nash County Fire Marshal's Office is investigating the fire.
