A large straw rick burned to ashes in Wexford last Saturday afternoon. The straw caught fire in mid-afternoon, with a plume of smoke visible for miles around.
The rick of big square wheaten straw bales burned out was the property of Ballyhamilton Grain, the grain farming and merchant business owned by the Leech family of Ballyhamilton, near Ballindaggin in Wexford.
Ballyhamilton Grain owns a mobile fire station that follows the combines during harvesting, and it – along with a water bowser – contained the blaze until the fire services arrived on the scene. A grubber was deployed to create a fire break around the bale rick. The fire services were able to refill with water from a small lake on the farm, located only a few hundred metres from the site of the fire.
The straw stack was near to a shed used to store compost, but thanks to the work of the family, the fire services and neighbours who came with tankers of water, it was contained, with only side sheeting adjacent to the fire damaged. The cause of the fire is unknown.
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