Spirit Lake, Iowa — A large fire has destroyed one Spirit Lake business, damaged a second, and closed down Highway 71 for several hours Friday morning.
According to KUOO Radio, Spirit Lake firefighters were called to the Golden Buys Outlet store at 1665 Highway 71 South a little before 8:30 Friday morning.
Spirit Lake Fire Chief Pat Daly says the fire started out as being a controlled burn that got out of control and shortly thereafter his department was paged for a structure fire.
Chief Daly says the whole building is totally gone. He says there were workers that were in the building when the fire began, but they were able to get out. He says they ended up calling Arnolds Park-Okoboji, Milford, and Superior Fire Departments for help battling the blaze.
Daly says that, once the building’s roof fell in, they brought in an excavator to knock down portions of what was left of the building to allow fire crews access to remaining hot spots.
Daly says it’s fortunate the wind at the time was out of the north, or it likely would have been much worse. Even so, he says, there was damage to at least one of the green houses at Ferguson’s Garden and Landscape Center, which is located to the south of the burning building.
Our thanks to KUOO Radio for this story
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Original story (courtesy of KUOO) was posted at 10:51 am, June 11, 2021
Spirit Lake, Iowa — A large business fire shut down a stretch of Highway 71 in Spirit Lake Friday morning.
KUOO Radio reports that the Spirit Lake Fire Department was called shortly before 8:30 am Friday to the Golden Buys Outlet Store at 1665 Highway 71 South after getting a report of a controlled burn that quickly got out of hand after the wind suddenly picked up. The fire quickly spread to the building itself, engulfing it. The Arnolds Park-Okoboji, Milford and Superior Fire Departments were then called for assistance for manpower and equipment.
Reports from the scene indicated everyone had gotten out of the building safely, and there were no immediate reports of any injuries. An ambulance was also standing by as a precaution.
A very large cloud of black smoke from the fire could be seen for a time from as far away as Lake Park.
Highway 71 from 34th Street at Kwik Star to 41st Street has been closed because of the fire. Traffic is being detoured.
The video below comes to us courtesy of our friends at KUOO Radio. Please excuse the windy audio…….
