UTICA — Fire officials have determined the fire which destroyed a large hay barn containing hundreds of large round bales of hay at 20464 Bell Church Road was started by a natural phenomena.

“It was spontaneous combustion,” said Utica Fire Capt. Brooks Schmidlin, who was the scene commander Tuesday when 70 firefighters from 12 departments battled the fire for several hours. “The barn was packed from wall to wall with green hay and it didn’t have any room to breathe.”

Hay with too high of a moisture content can overheat as it cures. Temperatures rise quickly inside bales which are “green,” with a high moisture content. Once temperatures rise high enough inside the bales, smoke and flames can erupt.

The firefighting effort, which kept crews at the family cattle farm owned by Donald and Patty Cornelius for around 10 hours, required over 200,000 gallons of water and 135 gallons of firefighting foam to fully extinguish.

Schmidlin said heavy machinery was used to pull the nearly 400 smoldering bales from the barn. The bales were then pulled apart and hit with streams of water and foam.

A large hole was dug on the property, where crews moved the burned hay and any smoldering remnants. Firefighters used the foam and water to ensure any hot spots in the hay were squelched inside the hole.

“We put it in the hole and drowned it,” Schmidlin said of the remaining hay.

The last fire crews were cleared of the scene after 9 p.m.