UPDATE: Six People Homeless In Aftermath Of Sheldon Blaze

1-12 Fire

Sheldon, Iowa — Residents of two of the apartments evacuated due to an early Thursday morning fire in Sheldon have been allowed to return to their homes.

Sheldon firefighters responded to a call at Valley View Village Apartments in Sheldon shortly after 4:30 Thursday morning when a person out walking detected smoke.

Assistant Fire Chief Randy Harms says the fire was electrical in nature, and began in a junction box in the attic.  Flames were visible through the roof when firefighters arrived.

The apartment complex is comprised of a series of four-unit buildings.  Thursday’s fire was in the attic above one of the two middle apartments in the structure, and forced the evacuation of all four units.  O’Brien County Emergency Management Coordinator Jared Johnson said that the occupants of three of the units had local relatives with whom they could stay, and the resident of the fourth unit was assisted in securing emergency housing by the American Red Cross.

The residents of the two end units of the structure were reportedly allowed to return home late Friday.

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Original Story Posted 1/12/17 – 9:57 am

Sheldon, Iowa — Six residents of a Sheldon apartment complex were left homeless following a fire early this (January 12th) morning.

Sheldon Fire Fighters were paged shortly after 4:30 this morning, after someone who was out for a walk in the northeastern part of the city called 911 to report smoke coming from the Valley View Village Apartments, which are located on Oak Street, behind Sheldon’s Shopko store.

Assistant Fire Chief Randy Harms says that by the time firefighters arrived, flames were visible coming through the roof of one of the apartment units.  The complex is made up of a series of four-unit buildings, according to Harms.  He says the fire, which he described as electrical in nature, had started in the attic of one of the apartment units.  Firefighters opened up the portion of the roof that was ablaze, to allow them greater access to battle the fire.

Assistant Chief Harms says Sheldon police officer Brian Wielenga was the initial first-responder to arrive at the scene, and had awakened and evacuated the residents of all four of the apartments in the building prior to the fire department’s arrival.  He says there were no injuries to residents, or firefighters.

Harms says that the four apartments in the building were rendered uninhabitable by the blaze.  He tells us that O’Brien County Emergency Management Coordinator, Jared Johnson, worked with the American Red Cross to arrange housing for the displaced residents of the building.

Sheldon firefighters were assisted by the Sheldon Police Department, Sheldon Community Ambulance Team, O’Brien County Emergency Management, and the American Red Cross.

Fire crews were on scene for about 3-1/2 hours.

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