WOODS CROSS — A smoldering bale of straw caused a fire that resulted in about $500,000 in damages to a barn, its contents and several pieces of equipment, fire officials said.

Firefighters were dispatched to 911 S. Redwood Road, Woods Cross shortly before 3 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 5, about a barn and a house on fire, said South Davis Metro Fire Agency Chief Jeff Bassett. 

When firefighters arrived they were able to quickly extinguish the fire on the roof of the house, Bassett said. The house received minimal damage.

But the fire destroyed the barn, 40 tons of straw and hay inside it, along with other contents and two semi-trailers, a passenger van and a front-end loader, he said. No one was hurt from the three-alarm fire that had 33 firefighters from South Davis Metro Fire, Salt Lake City, West Valley, Farmington, Kaysville, Layton and Sunset battling it. 

• RELATED: Homes evacuated as crews put out Woods Cross barn fire

Bassett sent a press release Monday, Aug. 8, about the cause of the fire, which was determined as accidental.

According to the press release, farm workers were using a front-end loader to offload straw from a flatbed trailed at the northwest section of the barn. As one bale of straw was lifted, the workers noticed it was smoking. As they continued to lift the bale, the twine binding the bale broke, which introduced air into the smoldering bale and caused spontaneous ignition.

“Some of the burning straw went under the front-end loader the rest fell at the base of the barn, igniting a large quantity of hay and straw,” Bassett wrote in the press release. “The fire immediately spread to the inside of the barn and the entire barn and the front-end loader were engulfed in fire.”

Bassett said earlier on Monday the property is owned by the Kingston family and was rented to others. 

On Friday, Woods Cross Police Chief Greg Butler said police from several agencies were called to the area to help with evacautions of nine homes. His officers had to take a detour, which caused them a delay of four to five minutes to get to the fire, because a Union Pacific Railroad engineer was “uncooperative,” Butler said.

Butler said the train engineer refused to move his train that was blocking 500 West and 1500 South to allow police cars to get to the fire to help with the evacuation of the homes in a timely manner.

Union Pacific Railroad Western Region Corporate Relations & Media Director Justin Jacobs emailed a statement on Monday about the incident. 

“Currently this incident is under investigation. Union Pacific will conduct a full and complete investigation into this matter and cannot comment further while the investigation is ongoing. Union Pacific values the strong relationships we have developed with local law enforcement in the Salt Lake City area and across our network,” according to the email. 

You can reach reporter Loretta Park at lpark@standard.net or at 801-625-4252. Follow her on Twitter@LorettaPark SE or like her on Facebook.