Hay fires continue to bother residents

Maricopa residents are worried for their health after a series of  “tenacious” hay fires continue to burn, said a Pinal County official.

“I am very furious,” Morgan Vanderwall of Maricopa said. “You can see the smoke in our house. It looks like fog.”

Vanderwall, a Maricopa resident for eight years, is the mother to two children. Her 2-year-old daughter has asthma. She has sealed her windows and hasn’t been using her air conditioning, she said. She stockpiled air freshener.

“I am so confused why it keeps happening, and I worry about my kids,” she said.

The first fire on Sept. 14 likely was caused by a lightning strike, fire officials said.

The second fire occurred Sept. 22 and the third followed on Sept. 25. These two fires were caused by spontaneous combustion, or a combination of moisture and heat.

Pinal County spokeswoman Heather Murphy called the fires “tenacious.”

“Yes, it’s a nuisance, and yes it’s a concern,” Murphy said. “We have seen some instances of air-quality noncompliance but nothing that would have triggered evacuation.”

Pinal County provides air-quality index reports daily and posts them on its website. The measurement is denoted by an array of colors, from green to red. The past week the rate sat at orange, or “unhealthy for sensitive groups.”

Meanwhile, cleanup continues.