Northwest Iowa — More northwest Iowa fire chiefs are asking farmers to have a disk hooked up to a tractor and have it ready to go help disk fire breaks to stop field fires.
Several field and combine fires have been reported in recent days. An Ashton area farmer lost what probably would have amounted to over $6000 worth of corn and soybeans in a fire on Tuesday. Ashton Fire Chief Andy Gacke says the fire, about two miles northeast of Ashton appeared to have been caused by a spark from a combine. He says about 10 acres of standing crops were destroyed.
Both Gacke and Hawarden Fire Chief Duane Schiefen are asking us to ask farmers to have those disks at the ready.
Schiefen says his department had a combine fire on Wednesday. He said it turned out minor, but if it had gotten into crops, it could have been much worse.
The Hull Fire Department also responded to a field fire recently. Luckily the only thing that burned in that fire was 15-20 acres of stubble, where the crop had already been harvested.
The Hull firefighters were also called to what was paged as a structure fire on Wednesday, three miles southwest of Hull on Highway 75, but when they got there, Fire Chief Greg Van Roekel says an electrical issue had caused an electrical box to blow. He says the fire was out when they got there, and they arrived to smoke coming from the unit. The damage was limited to the electrical equipment, says Van Roekel.
