Friday Blaze Causes Major Damage To Sibley Home

Sibley, Iowa — A Sibley home received major damage in a fire that was reported late Friday morning.

Sibley Fire Chief Ken Huls tells KIWA that his department was paged for a house fire in southeast Sibley at about 11:00 Friday morning. The original page was for a house that had smoke coming from every window.

Chief Huls says when his crews arrived there was a large amount of smoke visible coming from the structure. Due to Friday’s high heat and humidity, Huls immediately put out a call for manpower from the Ashton and Ocheyedan Fire Departments under their Mutual Aid Agreement. A short time later, Huls requested firefighters from Little Rock, as well.

Huls says when firefighters made entry into the home they discovered flames in the living room of the home, as well as in the basement underneath. He said that when firefighters attempted to enter the basement to attack the flames in that area, they were hampered by fire that was coming up the basement steps. He says once they were able to knock that fire down, they entered the basement and discovered flames on the overhead beams that serve as floor joists for the living room above.

He says fire crews were able to get the blaze knocked down in about an hour, using what he estimates to be between 20 and 30-thousand gallons of water, as well as what he termed, “a lot of foam”.  Firefighters were on-scene for about 1-1/2 hours.

Huls says there was nobody in the home when the blaze broke out, and none of the fire crews were injured battling the fire. He says the living room and basement area of the home sustained heavy fire and water damage, with the rest of structure receiving smoke and water damage.

Chief Huls says the fire appeared to have originated in the basement of the home, and appeared to be electrical in nature. Huls estimated that damage to the home would top $100-thousand, which he said would probably qualify it as a total loss.

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