(Photo by Russ Mitchell) Flames continue to linger Thursday afternoon following an overnight fire at the Bill and Lisa Elliott north of Spencer. Damage was in excess of $100,000 but no one was home at the time. [Order this photo]

Fingers of fire still emerged from piles of charred hay and debris more than 12 hours after a fire was called in at a farm north of Spencer.

The hay will continue to smolder for a day or two, according to Fostoria Fire Chief Tim Kelsch. Letting fire under piles of hay burn itself out is easier than trying to spread the material out to extinguish the buried heat sources.

It was just before 1 a.m. Thursday morning when Kelsch and his fire department were dispatched by the Clay County/Spencer Communications Center. Emergency officials received a report from a neighbor that an area farm building was on fire at 3115 240th Ave. in rural Spencer.

"As soon as you got out to Highway 71 (from Fostoria), you could see the fire," Kelsch said. "It was about three miles away and we could see it from the highway."

The main barn at the Bill and Lisa Elliott farm, located 4 1/2 miles south and about two miles east of Fostoria, was fully engulfed in flames. The fire was attended to by the Fostoria and the Dickens Fire Departments.

Elliott was blending his own bio-diesel, and some of the containers started erupting from the heat.

Other buildings nearby also caught on fire as a result of the fuel containers exploding. In addition to losing the main building where the fuel was stored, a barn roof of another shed had severe damage and the vinyl siding was melted on the north side of the house.

Another large, 2 1/2 story brick barn sustained about $30,000 damage, according to the fire chief's estimates.

Firefighters were able to save the house by cooling it down first. The interior was not damaged and no one was home at the time.

"We were able to knock down the fires on the structures that were still savable," Kelsch said. "It went really well."

The fire is still being investigated by Fostoria Fire and the State Fire Marshall's Office. Hay that isn't properly dried could combust spontaneously. Older barns also have older electrical systems.

Kelsch said both scenarios could be a possibility, but the extent of damage kept the fire chief from making a specific determination.

"With the amount of damage and the structure being totally engulfed when we arrived on scene, we weren't able to determine which end of the building started first," Kelsch said.

Clay County Sheriff Randy Krukow said the Spencer Municipal Hospital Ambulance was paged to treat one fireman for heat exhaustion, but no other injuries were reported.

Three sheep perished in the fire and damage estimates are in excess of $100,000.