Fayetteville fire department was working to control a large fire in a field Thursday afternoon in Cumberland County.
Officials said the fire happened near the intersection of Stoney Point and Gillis Hill roads.
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WRAL's Sky 5 flew over the scene and captured video of a tractor that was damaged by the fire.
The fire was under control by 5 p.m., but officials said crews would stay on the scene until the flames are completely out.
Joe Gillis, who owns the land where the fire happened, said the fire started in an instant.
"We were bailing wheat straw and teh hay baler caught on fire," Gillis said. "The dry straw just took off burning."
Gillis said that while no one was injured, the damage was devastating. Gillis estimated he lost around 600 bales of hay and thousands of dollars on his equipment in the fire.
"Probably $225,000 to $250,000 worth of equipment," Gillis said.
North Carolina is currently under a statewide burn ban for all 100 counties due to dangerous fire conditions linked to the on-going drought. More than three-quarters of the state is under severe drought conditions, with 17%, including counties in the far west of the state, in an extreme drought. Rain totals since September have been more than ten inches below normal.
When asked what he could've done to stop the fire in the state's current drought conditions, Gillis said there wasn't much he or his family couldn'e done diffferently.
"IT was just something that happened to a piece of equipment," Gillis said. "It made a spark or something, set the hay on fire and that was it."