A blazing haystack puts out a ton of heat and light, and smells like a big cigar.
Early Saturday morning, Nov. 30, in Washington’s Tri-Cities region, a haystack was set alight north of Pasco in Franklin County. The fire was called in by an air traffic controller at the Tri-Cities airport in Pasco who could see it from miles away. “I was across the road and it felt like a big warm campfire,” said Mike Harris with Franklin County Fire District 3. “It’s hotter than a house fire because it’s so dense.”
More than a dozen haystacks have been burned under suspicious circumstances in Central Washington since early October. It’s concerning to the hay industry and law enforcement.
Most of the recent suspicious fires have been in Grant County, near Moses Lake and Ephrata.