MORE than 50 firefighters spent seven hours battling a dramatic barn blaze after a pile of hay spontaneously combusted.

Crews from Barrow, Walney, Ulverston, Grange and Broughton were tasked to a farm in Marton at 8pm on Sunday night.

With support from a Command Unit, the aerial ladder platform and a water appliance from Penrith along with three managers, the firefighters worked in difficult conditions in a bid to prevent the fire from spreading.

Station manager Roger Exley was one of the managers at the scene. He praised his crews for their efforts to halt the fire in its tracks.

"It was quite a significant fire when we got there," he said.

"The damage had already been done to the barn but we needed to stop it from spreading. It was in a large barn in the middle of two other barns.

"Water supplies aren't great up there so we had to assign a lot of resources to make sure we could bring it under control."

Mr Exley revealed while the cause of the fire is not confirmed, it is not believed to have been deliberate, and it is understood spontaneous combustion allowed the warm hay to set alight.

Although more typically heard of in Hollywood blockbusters spontaneous combustion is a genuine phenomenon. It is a type of combustion which occurs by self-heating which leads to autoignition.

Despite the wrongly-held common belief that fire requires a spark spontaneous combustion is something firefighters often come across.

In January a pile of warm towels fresh from the tumble dryer sparked a blaze at the Farmers Arms in Baycliff.

The towels had been placed on a chair and the heat from the towels gradually generated enough energy to spark a blaze.

"It is something we come across," Mr Exley said.

"The fire at the barn was in a pile of hay around three metres high and four metres deep and when we dug into the pile we found it was on fire on the inside too."

Rural areas often see a spate in fires caused by spontaneous combustion when piles of warm hay, straw or manure are stored in barns.

Mr Exley said ventilation and vigilance were key to preventing similar blazes.

"We would just advise people to be vigilant," he said.

"The barn was ventilated which helped, as the fire burnt through the roof and that allowed the fire to burn out."

Fortunately no one, including a large number of chickens kept nearby, was hurt during the fire.

Mr Exley praised his firefighters for their "excellent team work in difficult conditions".