Fire in Moses Lake closes I-90; destroys buildings

MOSES LAKE — An explosion sent a mushroom cloud of flames and smoke 1,000 feet into the air Friday and burned at least four buildings at a company that makes plastic tarps to cover haystacks in central Washington state. The blaze closed Interstate 90, the state’s main east-to-west freeway, in both directions for about two hours. No one has been injured and the cause of the blaze is not yet known, Grant County Sheriff’s spokesman Kyle Foreman said. Numerous haystacks were burning at the company called Inland Tarp & Liner in Moses Lake, he said. Kim Ragan said he drove out to the area Friday morning to make sure his friend’s house was not burning, and he saw a massive explosion the size of a football field that sent a plume of black smoke into the sky. White smoke was rising off the burning haystacks, and the fire was leap-frogging to other stacks, he said. Inland Tarp & Liner has warehouses across the country. A woman who answered the phone at its corporate office in Ohio said the company had no comment but would release a statement later.