Authorities say spontaneous combustion is to blame for an early Monday morning fire at a hops warehouse in Yakima.
It was the first time in more than a decade that Yakima firefighters were called to a significant hop warehouse fire, said fire department Capt. Jeff Pfaff. The last major Yakima hop warehouse fire was in 2006, Pfaff said. In that year, a fire at S.S. Steiner destroyed 4 percent of the nation’s hop supply, according to news reports.
Spontaneous combustion is a common danger in the hop industry, as acids in the hops break down and cause the hops to heat up to the point where they eventually burst into flames.
A total of 16 firefighters responded to an automatic fire alarm around 1:15 a.m. at the John I. Haas hops warehouse at 1716 Gordon Road, according to a Yakima Fire Department news release.