Northwest Iowa — Northwest Iowa fire departments were busy on Sunday. But luckily none of the fires have caused much damage.
On Sunday morning, about 11:45 the Orange City Fire Department was called to a fire that someone set intentionally, but then lost control of the flames. It was nearing a shed, so they called 911, according to Orange City Fire Chief Denny Vander Wel. He says no injuries were reported, and the damage was limited to grass. He says they were there for half an hour.
About 1:05 p.m. on Sunday, the Hawarden Fire Department was called to a ditch fire two miles south of Hawarden on Highway 12. Hawarden Chief Duane Schiefen says they don’t know what started the fire, but it too was limited to the ditch grass. He says firefighters were there for about a half an hour.
The Calumet Fire Department was the busiest on Sunday. Fire Chief Korey Dau says their day started out helping with a private controlled burn of ditch grass north of town, but it got a little out of hand, so he radioed in to have dispatch page the Sutherland firefighters, but he says before they responded, the Calumet firefighters had gained control again, so he called them off. But as soon as the Calumet crew got back to the station, they were called for a fire in a ditch on the west edge of Calumet. He says the farmer was burning fence lines and this fire too got out of control. He says it only managed to burn some grass and stalks. They were on that scene for 45 minutes. Then about 8:30 p.m., Calumet firefighters were paged again. This time they were to go 5996 480th Street, about three miles west of Calumet. Someone was burning trash and grass and that fire also went out of control and got into a field of cornstalk stubble. Again, it only burned stubble and grass, but Dau says it was a good thing they got it out because unchecked, it would have been much worse.
Firefighters are advising caution due to higher winds and dryer grasses this time of year.
