Suspicious fire devastates South Whidbey nonprofit farm

A suspicious fire at the BlackSeed Agroecology Farm & Village on South Whidbey destroyed an estimated $250,000 worth of hydroponic equipment Friday afternoon.

Island County Sheriff Rick Felici said investigators gathered evidence from the scene and sent it to the Washington State Crime Lab to help identify whether any accelerant may have been used to start the fire.

Adasha Turner, the founder of the organization, said deputies and fire officials at the scene told her they were convinced that the fire was an act of arson. Fire officials from several different fire departments responded to help with the investigation, although any possible criminal case would be handled by detectives with the sheriff’s office.

A GoFundMe page started to help BlackSeed Agroecology Farms recover after the fire has raised more than $21,000 so far. It can be found at gofundme.com/f/support-blackseed-farms-after-devastating-fire.

Turner said the fire was both devastating and frightening, especially with the prospect that someone may have been trying to prevent the farm from moving forward with its mission of supporting a resilient community by growing food and teaching young people of color about the techniques and economics of agriculture.

“All we’re doing is growing food and feeding people,” she said. “What is so threatening?”

Turner, the founder of Modest Family Solutions in Everett, envisioned the nonprofit farm on Whidbey Island after her group was awarded a 99-year lease on 10 acres by the national nonprofit Agrarian Trust. Freeland resident Caroline Gardner donated the land to the Agrarian Trust in 2019.

Maxine Mimms, the renowned founder of the Tacoma Campus of Evergreen State College, donated hydroponic equipment to BlackSeed so that the group could grow microgreens and other year-round crops on the island. Turner said it took four days and nine trips from Tacoma and back to bring the equipment to Whidbey Island. She said the group’s members were finally done on Thursday and had planned a grand opening this coming weekend.

But then disaster struck Friday afternoon.

Chief Nicholas Walsh with South Whidbey Fire/EMS said crews responded from the Bayview station to a report of a residential fire. He said they arrived to find a fierce fire on the outside of a metal shipping container. The firefighters were able to extinguish the flames on the outside in about 10 minutes and then they went inside the container, where the hydroponic equipment on the inside was destroyed by the heat of the fire. Crews put out the smoking and smoldering equipment in about 20 minutes, the chief said.

Walsh said the department has a trained fire investigator who is working with the sheriff’s office to determine the cause. He said the equipment was not electrical nor did it contain any flammable liquids.

Turner said she believes that arson is the only reasonable explanation for a raging fire that destroyed metal, plastic and glass equipment and burned the side of a metal shipping container, creating high enough temperatures to melt the contents.

Turner said South Whidbey hasn’t been exactly welcoming before the fire. The farm and staff have been there nearly three years but they didn’t meet their neighbors prior to the incident, though she said she was thankful that so many people came to help. Before then, the main interaction she had with the Whidbey community at large was from people who questioned whether the group had permits for its projects, she said.

“It’s hard to have a kumbaya moment when you are standing in ashes,” she said.