Smoky

No, not the bear... I'm talking about the hay fire out on Ray Road, between Recker and Power. The Republic has an article on it's suspicious origins:

Gilbert Fire Department is investigating the cause of a suspicious fire that destroyed 36 tons of hay Sunday.

The fire started about 4 p.m. and crews were still tending to the fire late Monday morning after allowing it to burn itself out, fire department officials said. No one was injured.

The fire, on Ray Road between Power and Recker roads, was in an area that has been hit with a series of nine suspicious fires over an 11-month period from July 2005 to June.

David Zehring, a Gilbert fire investigator, said the hay fire might be related based on its proximity, though no clear links to previous fires have been established.

And the East Valley Tribune has one as well:

Smoke from a hay fire that could last for days is drifting into nearby homes, said Division Chief Mark Smith of the Gilbert Fire Department.

Smith said firefighters used a frontend loader to break apart the approximately 100 bails of hay and they have sprayed a special foam on the fire to cut down on the smoke, but there isn't much more they can do about it.

"It will smolder for days and days and days," Smith said.

...

Smith said it is unknown how the fire started.

He said radio traffic mentioned that two teenagers were seen running from the area, but hay bails also have a tendency to spontaneously combust.

This is the smoke I'm talking about. The Mister says that hay fires are pretty much impossible to put out. The water can't get to the embers underneath, because the ash of the hay insulates them. Our farm green-chops all its hay now (a big machine comes through chopping the hay into little pieces and then it immediately gets picked up and sent to the dairy for either feeding the cows right now or some time in a silage pit) but when we used to bale the hay (which, conversely to green chopping, requires the cut hay to lay in the field for a time to dry out before being baled for storage), there would be one or two fires due to spontaneous combustion - out of hundreds of stacks. So, not to point too stern a finger, but odds are that this one was set.

Maybe the perpetrators live in the neighborhood that is getting smoked. Small comfort for the other residents.