What began as a rubbish fire spread to grass and quickly to a hay barn last week, consuming 80 or more bales of hay and occupying Marion and Hillsboro firefighters for eight hours.

Hillsboro fire chief Ben Steketee was first on the scene Dec. 28 at a shed near the home of Brad and Jane Wiens on Kanza Rd. near 160th Rd. Steketee said roughly 100 square bales were in the shed, but at least a dozen were saved from the blaze.

“We got there at 1:30 p.m. and left about 9:30 at night,” Steketee said. “Hayshed fires are like that. They take a long time.”

Almost 22,000 gallons of water were used to subdue the fire, Steketee said.

“That was just to control it,” he said. “The operation consisted of moving (haybales) out of the shed and putting them in the field to burn.”

Although the shed itself burned, not all of the structure was lost, Steketee said.

“It looks like most of the steel structure will be able to remain,” he said, “but will probably need to be checked out because it was exposed to high temperatures.”