Orange City, Iowa — Another large ground hay pile was destroyed in a fire near Orange City recently.
Orange City Fire Chief Denny Vander Wel says this is the fourth time this year that they’ve been called to Robert Wassenaar’s dairy farm at 4280 Jackson Avenue, just north of the Orange City city limits on K64.
He says the fire call actually started on Thursday, September 7, 2017. He says they were paged at 6:22 a.m that day, and were called again at 4:44 a.m. the next day, Friday, September 8th.
Vander Wel says no injuries were reported, and that the Alton Fire Department brought water both times. He says the cause of the fires is still unknown. He says he’s pretty sure the fire on Friday was due to a flare-up of Thursday’s blaze.
He says they used a side-dump truck and two large manure spreaders to move the pile out into a field where they broke it apart and drenched it with water.
He says they used 30,000 gallons of water to fight the fire between the two days, and crews were on scene for at least three hours.
