Local farmers put out a large fire late Tuesday morning on Highway 99W south of Corvallis after a tractor-trailer carrying a full load of hay ignited, closing the highway and threatening nearby fields and power lines.

Just before 10:30 a.m., the northbound tractor-trailer pulled over just north of Payne Road with its load on fire. Witnesses said several area farmers spotted the blaze and flocked to the scene with their own firefighting equipment.

The Monroe Fire Department was next on the scene, having rushed 12 miles to reach the scene. By then, the farmers had knocked down the fire, but not before it burned the entire load of hay, the tractor-trailer carrying it and — after it quickly spread across to the highway’s east — charred a power pole.

Burn marks on the power pole, owned by Pacific Power, indicate that the fire almost reached the power line.

The fire was the second in three days that farmers have put out in the same general area, but it was the first on public property.

Sunday evening, dozens of neighbors from surrounding farms helped fight a grass fire sparked by a downed power line on the east side of Highway 99W, south of Payne Road. That fire consumed an area the size of a football field on private property owned by Avery Jones.

Payne Road is just south of the boundary line that is the Corvallis Fire Department’s jurisdiction. But the Monroe Rural Fire District does not quite meet up with that boundary, making it one of a few areas in the county commonly called a “no-man’s land” for fire protection. The Corvallis Fire Department’s policy is to send a single unit unless there is an imminent threat to life or a structure, spokeswoman Carla Pusateri said.

Benton County Sheriff’s Deputy Toby Bottorff said the farmers’ quick action prevented further destruction.

“Venell Farms, Green & White (Rock Products) were out here pretty quickly,” Bottorff said.

Local farmer Irv Jones said several people from Smith Farms were the first at the scene with pump trucks, including one older truck purchased from the Pleasant Hill Fire Department that still bore Pleasant Hill’s markings.

Road crews from the Oregon Department of Transportation detoured highway traffic in both directions for three hours before the road was reopened about 1:30 p.m.

A Benton County Public Works employee scooped up the smoldering hay with a front loader and placed it in a drainage ditch on the east side of the highway. The tractor-trailer, a total loss, was towed away.

New fire restrictions issued

High temperatures, low humidity and winds have prompted the Oregon Department of Forestry to enact restrictions that shut down most logging activities on state forest lands in western Oregon.

The restrictions, designed to prevent fires, begin today at 1 p.m. and are in effect until further notice. Entry to all forestland is unlawful unless the following restrictions are complied with:

• Industrial forest operations are prohibited after 1 p.m. This includes power saws and yarding operations.

• Smoking is prohibited while traveling, except in vehicles on improved roads.

• Open fires are prohibited, including campfires, charcoal, cooking and warming fires, except at designated locations. Portable cooking stoves using liquefied or bottled fuels are allowed.

• Chain saw use is prohibited.

• All motor vehicles are prohibited, except on improved roads.

• Possession of firefighting equipment — one shovel, one gallon of water or one two-and-a-half-pound or larger fire extinguisher — is required while traveling, except on state highways.

• Fireworks are prohibited.

• Cutting, grinding and welding of metal is prohibited.

— Gazette-Times