Part of U.S. Highway 84 East between Bainbridge and Climax was shut down Monday night, as firefighters worked to extinguish a hay fire in the highway’s median.

Bainbridge Public Safety officers responded to the fire, located near the Bainbridge Shrine Club, at about 6:30 p.m. Monday, according to Adrienne Harrison, the city’s communications director.

BPS officials are unsure how the fire started. They do know that it began in bales of hay being hauled on a flatbed trailer. The truck’s driver pushed some of the bales off the trailer so that firefighters could spread them out and attack the fire.

Firefighters had to deal with extreme heat and lots of smoke coming off of the hay bales. At least a couple of firefighters suffering from heat exhaustion were treated at the scene by EMS personnel, Harrison said.

Firefighters were at the scene of the fire until about 10 p.m. All four lanes of the highway had to be closed for a few hours, due to the heavy smoke. Motorists were detoured onto Old Whigham Road.