Northwest Iowa — The warm and windy weather has made life busy for some firefighters around the area.
For instance, the Inwood Fire Department had two calls on Saturday, March 19th. The first one was a call to 2251 260th Street for a ditch fire, according to Inwood Fire Chief Troy Van Beek. That’s about two miles south and four and a half east of Inwood. Van Beek says some embers from a burn pile caught wind and ended up in the ditch across the road. He says the occupants had it mostly put out when they got there, but firefighters assisted by dousing the hot spots and putting out the burn pile. That call went out about 3 p.m. and they were there about 20 minutes.
About an hour later, Van Beek says they were called to a field fire northwest of town near the Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, two miles north, three west, and a half north of Inwood. Chief Van Beek says they aren’t sure what caused that one, because it seems to have started in the middle of the field. He says a neighbor told them someone had been target-shooting in that direction, but the official cause is undetermined. The chief says about 10 acres of corn stubble burned.
On Sunday, March 20, 2022, the Paullina Fire Department was paged out around noon to a grass fire two miles west of Paullina. Chief Ryan Harper says that when the Paullina Fire Department arrived they found a ditch on fire that appeared to have been intentionally started and was burning unattended. He says the fire was extinguished and had burned about half an acre. The Paullina Fire Department was back in service in about half an hour. He says the Granville Fire Department was also on scene to assist.
Other fires were also reported in the area. Fire officials remind people to be very careful with fire or anything that could create heat or sparks. While precip is forecast this week, it’s been dry for quite a while so it won’t take too long to dry out when the precip stops.
