The Associated Press
MOSES LAKE, Wash. — A dramatic fire and explosion that sent a propane tank flying 1,000 feet has burned five buildings at a company that makes plastic tarps to cover haystacks and set fire to 11,000 tons of hay in central Washington state.
The blaze closed Interstate 90, the state’s main east-to-west freeway, in both directions for about two hours Friday.
By late Friday afternoon, Grant County sheriff’s spokesman Kyle Foreman said the building fires were out, but the nearby hay stacks will burn for days. He says the county fire marshal’s office says the inferno that sent up a towering mushroom cloud of flames and smoke was started accidentally by sparks generated as workers used a saw to cut metal.
No one has been injured.
Calls and emails seeking comment from Inland Tarp & Liner in Moses Lake were not immediately returned.