Larchwood, Iowa — A house was destroyed in a fire on Wednesday, August 19, 2020, near Larchwood.
According to Larchwood Assistant Fire Chief Deric Kruse, about 10:55 a.m., the Larchwood Fire Department was called to provide mutual aid for the Valley Springs, SD Fire Department. While the fire was only two miles east of the Grand Falls Casino on the north side of the road, it was in Valley Springs’ territory, and Larchwood, while they are the closest community, was actually paged last of the five departments to fight the fire, due to the fire being in South Dakota and their mutual aid agreements being set up the way they are, according to Kruse.
The assistant chief says the fire department saw smoke coming from the roof as they approached the scene.
Assistant Chief Kruse says no injuries were reported.
In addition to Valley Springs and Larchwood firefighters, others from Brandon, Sioux Falls, and Split Rock helped battle the blaze. Kruse tells us while the fire didn’t total the house by itself, it was destroyed. He says since the house was so tall they had to bring in an excavator to pull it apart and get to the fire. And what the fire didn’t get was destroyed by the excavator, says Kruse.
He says the cause of the fire is undetermined.
Assistant Chief Kruse reports that the over 50 firefighters who responded were on the scene for over four hours.
In another fire call just out of our area, Hudson, South Dakota and Hawarden firefighters were paged to a fire south of Hudson at 29702 487th Street, which is a mile west, three south and a half back east of Hudson, or six miles north and a mile east of Hawarden.
Hudson Assistant Fire Chief Justin Teunissen says the landowner had been burning some debris a few days before, and it is believed that the fire sparked up again and lit a pile of building rubble on fire. He says that firefighters were on the scene for about an hour.
