A large brush fire near the Yelm roundabout Tuesday afternoon shut down the highway for more than an hour as crews fought the blaze that threatened several homes and a businesses.
The fire started in a field at AR Hay LLC. On their Facebook page, the business said it started from a lawnmower hitting a rock, which caused a spark.
Austin Rogers, co-owner of AR Hay, said that the company would just have to keep moving forward after four acres of inventory burnt, totalling a $150,000 loss.
Co-owner Chuck Rogers said that it only took the flames 20 minutes to get from one side of the field to the other.
Water had to be brought into the fire site by tender and helicopter.
Smoke from the fire could be seen from miles away and traffic snarled around the area as motorists took different routes to get to and from Yelm.