Sheldon, Iowa — Five acres of standing corn were destroyed in a fire on Thursday, October 12, 2023, near Sheldon.
According to Sheldon Fire Chief Brad Hindt, at about 5:20 p.m., the Sheldon Fire Company was called to the report of a field fire between 320th and 330th streets on Olive Avenue, two and a half miles east of the Highway 18 and 60 interchange and about a half a mile south.
The chief says the fire department saw standing corn burning as they approached the scene. He says they hit the fire with their deck gun, while a neighboring farmer disked a firebreak and then disked through the burning corn a few times. Firefighters put out any hot spots and made sure the fire was out.
Hindt says no injuries were reported.
He says the cause of the fire may have been a hot bearing on the combine, but the cause is officially undetermined.
If the five acres of corn were at the average yield for the county of 201 bushels per acre and it had been sold at today’s cash price of $4.70 per bushel, that’s over $4700 in damage. The chief says the combine did not burn.
Hindt says the firefighters who responded were on the scene for about an hour.
