A task force is looking into the possibility that a massive hay fire in southern Weld County this morning is arson, according to Weld County Undersheriff Margie Martinez.
The fire was reported at 4:30 a.m. and is burning in a 500-ton haystack at the family-owned Rossi Dairy at Weld County Roads 10 and 39 1/2.
Martinez said the fire is being viewed as “suspicious” by investigators from the Weld County Sheriff’s Department.
Martinez said that as a result, a task force investigating a series of suspicious fires in Weld County during the past two months is investigating.
The task force is composed of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the Union Colony Fire Rescue Authority, and the Windsor Fire Department.
Brad Beyersdorf, spokesman for the ATF office in Denver, said a Cheyenne-based ATF agent responded to today’s fire. The ATF arson-explosives unit based in Denver has also been assisting the task force in recent weeks.
Anita Rossi, who owns the large dairy farm with her husband, said she has no doubt the fire was caused by an arsonist.
She said her husband awoke about 4:30 a.m. and saw the hay – their entire winter supply for 750 milking cows – ablaze. She said the burning hay cost about $50,000.
“It looked like a building was on fire,” said Rossi.
During their 30 years at the dairy, where they live, Rossi said that they never had a fire like this. The fire that was ablaze was high quality, dry hay, not the wet kind that sometimes spontaneously combusts, said Rossi.
Although the fire burned very hot, firefighters were able to contain it to the hay, said Jock Johnson, the fire chief for the Hudson Fire Protection District. The fire is expected to burn several more days. No one was injured and no structures were threatened.
Martinez said this is among at least half a dozen suspicious fires in Weld County in the past two months.
In September, three fires were ignited within a half-mile area about 7 miles southwest of Kersey along the east side of County Road 49, east of Greeley. Two of the fires quickly joined together, scorching 1,000 acres and destroying an unoccupied farm home and several outbuildings.
Several days later, three fires were ignited within a half mile area just west of Greeley at 83rd and south of 28th Street. The largest of the three spread quickly toward a home and about six horses corralled nearby. The fire burned 10 acres.
Martinez said that another suspicious fire occurred near Windsor.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
