Rock Valley, Iowa — There were some tense moments and several residents of an assisted living complex in Rock Valley had to be evacuated late Sunday night and just into Monday, March 9th, in Rock Valley.
Rock Valley Fire Chief Brent Eshuis tells us the call came in just after midnight for what seemed to be a natural gas leak. He says there was a gas smell in the building, and it was waking people up. He says firefighters turned off the gas valve for the building and donned airpacks and gas monitors. Eshuis says they didn’t find a high level of natural gas, but they did find a very high level of carbon dioxide, which indicated that something was not functioning properly.
He says that’s when they began the evacuation of the 36 people who live there. He says they called for help from the Rock Valley and Hull ambulance squads, and the Hull Fire Department. A school bus from the Netherlands Reformed Christian School was utilized to keep people warm and in one place. The Rock Valley Police Department, Sioux Center Police Department, the Sioux County Sheriff’s Office and Sioux County Emergency Management all responded to the scene.
Chief Eshuis says they started searching for the problem and attempted to open the door to one of the attached garages, and the door was hot. He says they found a running car in the garage. They believe that one of the residents had come home from church — it’s not known if this was morning church or evening church — and forgot to turn off their car before shutting the garage door and going inside.
He tells us crews ventilated the building with fans, and MidAmerican Energy turned the gas back on and restarted the equipment.
Residents were able to go back to their units about 1:45 a.m., says Eshuis, and responders cleared the scene about 15 minutes later.
KIWA Staff Photo
