HALF MOON BAY, Calif. - A retired Washington firefighter Joel Holland won the annual Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off on Monday, presenting a gigantic pumpkin that weighed 1,229 pounds.
The pumpkin is 3 feet, 9 inches high. He wins $6,145 for his efforts, at $5 per pound.

Joel Holland has won the competition five years in a row. He won last year with a pumpkin that weighed exactly the same amount.

Holland, 56, attributed his success to two decades of pumpkin growing experience and the favorable climate at his Puyallup, Wash., home.