Northwest Iowa — The dry conditions, combined with the strong winds we’ve been having the past few days have meant busy and hazardous days for area firefighters and farmers.
On Wednesday, Sioux Center Fire Chief David Van Holland called us and asked us to help him pass along a message.
(as said:) “I would really appreciate it if everybody could please stop their machines for the day and start up tomorrow sometime. I know that we are way ahead of schedule on harvest and I feel like it would be a major benefit to the farmers and also to the local fire departments to not harvest this afternoon, and that means also making round bales and harvesting round bales. I would appreciate it if we could please just halt those combines for 24 hours. I think the crops will still be there after all the wind blows through. It would be of my great pleasure not to take those trucks out of the fire station the rest of the day.”
Van Holland stated that the wind was forecast to die down, so presumably, Friday would be a better day. But he says it’s still very dry out there, so extreme caution is still needed.
Van Holland told us about a couple of Tuesday fires. He says 10 acres of standing corn burned, causing thousands of dollars in damage southwest of Sioux Center on Tuesday afternoon. Firefighters from Sioux Center, Ireton, Maurice, and Hawarden responded.
He says they also helped the Rock Valley Fire Department put out a very large fire. He says two miles of stubble burned in that fire, and over twenty farmers helped them out by disking fire breaks. He says both fires were started by combines. Rock Valley chief Brent Eshuis reports firefighters from Hull and Doon also assisted with that fire.
Inwood Fire Chief Troy Van Beek tells us they were called to two field fires on Tuesday too, one southeast of Inwood and one northwest of that town. The one southeast burned 25 acres of stubble, and the northwest one burned about an acre of stubble. Van Beek also says they are very thankful for farmers with disks.
The fires continued to be reported on Wednesday in northwest Iowa.
