Fire crews are still on scene Friday morning after more than 30 firefighters spent all night trying to extinguish a large barn fire at a London dairy farm at 3700 Old Victoria Road.
The London Fire Department responded to the fire in the city's southeast end at around 8 p.m. Thursday, and had to get help from neighbouring fire departments from Elgin County and Thames Centre, London platoon Chief Colin Shewell said.
"It was quite a substantial fire, it was at least a good 100 metres long and 25 to 30 metres wide. It was a rather large building with mostly hay that's feed for the cattle," he said. "We've made no entry into the building [because] it was completely involved when we responded."
Firefighters have used more than 450,000 litres of water trying to tame the fire and were been able to prevent it from spreading to other nearby buildings, Shewell said. No livestock were in danger but the fire department is working with excavators to dig through the hay and get to the seed of the fire, he added.
London Dairy Farms owner Tommy Faulkner said he's grateful there were no injuries and no cows were hurt, but it's unfortunate the property is experiencing a second fire a little more than a year after another structure burned down in a possible accident caused by welding.
In this instance, he said it's likely the fire was caused by spontaneous combustion.
"If the hay has too much moisture in it, it will heat and then it'll burn," said Faulkner. "The fire marshal hasn't made any determination, but I'm 100 per cent certain now that's what it was."
Officials from the city and Ontario's Ministry of Environment also attended the scene overnight.
Shewell said the fire isn't being deemed suspicious at this time, but the Ontario Fire Marshal's office is investigating the cause as it has likely caused millions of dollars in damage, he said.
"We're persistent and hopefully will get a better handle on it. And it will be smouldering for a number of days but we want to make sure we can contain it to that area there and make it safe for the farming operations to carry on."
Old Victoria Road is closed between Discovery Drive and Wilton Grove Road.