Boyden, Iowa — The Boyden fire department responded to the call of a tractor on fire a little before 1:00 p.m. on Thursday.
Fire Chief Chris Starkenburg reports that they were called to 4080 360th Street, which is a mile east and four south of Boyden. He says the farmer had been disking and said a code appeared on his on monitor, he engaged the clutch and then saw an orange glow, so he evacuated the tractor.
Another tractor was there and disked around the one on fire to limit the spread.
Starkenburg says the fire appeared to have been electrical in nature.
The 2013 Case-International was a total loss.
Firefighters were on the scene for about 45 minutes.
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Not too much later, the Boyden Fire Department had another call. This one came in about 2:10 p.m. and it was to Highway 18 and Jay Avenue, just a mile and a half west of Boyden.
Stakenburg says that fire was caused by a bearing going out in the baler. He says the farmer noticed the smoke so dumped the partial bale and pulled ahead. He says that luckily there was a disk nearby, plus they used water and foam to put out the fire.
The chief tells us the 2014 baler was totaled in the blaze and the Boyden firefighters were on that scene for about half an hour.
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Sibley, Iowa — The Sibley firefighters also responded to a baler fire. This one was on Thursday evening at about 6:35 p.m.
Fire Chief Ken Huls says it was at 170th Street and Polk Avenue, which is about a half mile east of the Jackrabbit Junction interchange in Sibley.
He says it was a similar situation in which something must have gotten hot. He says the farmer ejected the partial bale and took off toward the gate to get out of harm’s way.
Huls tells us the fire burned about 200 feet of cornstalk windrow and the partial bale, but there was only minimal damage to the baler. He credits the farmer’s quick thinking and the light wind for the fire not being any worse. He says they were there for about half an hour.
