Orange City, Iowa — A bathroom was damaged in a fire on Saturday, December 14, 2019, in Orange City.
According to Orange City Fire Chief Denny Vander Wel, about 2:30 p.m., the Orange City Fire Department was called to the report of an apartment fire at 609 Florida Avenue Southwest in Orange City.
The chief says the fire was in the bathroom and appeared to have started in a heating unit. He says the homeowner had attempted to put out the fire with water, which basically took care of it. He says they did have to do some overhaul to make sure the fire was out, which included taking down most of the ceiling in the bathroom. He says the damage was limited to the bathroom, but there was some light smoke damage elsewhere.
Vander Wel says no injuries were reported.
He says the cause of the fire appeared to have been a malfunction of the heating element, and that firefighters were there for about an hour.
The day before, on Friday, Orange City firefighters were called due to a smell of gas at a home at 321 Albany Avenue Southeast at about 2 p.m.
Vander Wel says it turned out to be a boiler malfunction. In fact, he says flames were coming out of the front of the boiler. An initial cause was thought to be a plugged chimney.
