Northwest Iowa — Firefighters fought a number of fires in recent days in northwest Iowa.
On Friday, George firefighters were called to 4377 190th Street, which is about two miles north and four east of George. A generator in its own building had been on fire there. Fire Chief Bill Sprock had Firefighter BJ Gerken talk to us. Gerken says the fire was out when they got there, but they made sure it was out, turned off the power, and so forth. Gerken tells us the cause is undetermined but believed to be some sort of malfunction. Damage was limited to the generator itself, and firefighters were there about 20 minutes, he says.
Then, Monday morning, George firefighters were called out again. This time it was a fire in a dryer vent in a home at 413 West Minnesota Avenue. Gerken tells us everyone was out of the house when they got there, and the fire had been put out with an extinguisher. Firefighters took the dryer outside and cleared the smoke with positive pressure fans. He says there was some damage to wiring and the vent hose, but he says the dryer may still be usable. He says they were there for about a half an hour.
The Ireton Fire Department was called out on Friday afternoon. Fire Chief Richard Steckelberg tells us that call was to a stalk chopper on fire in a field. He says the unit was in flames when they arrived. They quickly extinguished the fire. He tells us the cause is undetermined, but the chopper was probably totaled. He says they were there for 45 minutes.
The Little Rock Fire Department fought a fire on Saturday afternoon, about 2:45 p.m. at 4324 130th Street. That’s a mile north and two and a half west of Little Rock. Fire Chief Joe Schilling says it was a cornfield that had already been harvested, and the stubble was on fire. In addition to water, the chief says the farmer had a disk hooked up and was able to disk firebreaks, with the assistance of a firefighter who had another tractor and disk available. Schilling says they believe the fire was caused by sparks from a burning pile that had been used earlier in the day and were kicked up by the wind. He says about 10 acres of stubble burned, but nothing else burned. He does say, however, that the fire was only minutes from starting to burn standing corn, so it could have ended quite differently. Schilling reminds people that even though we’ve had some rain, it’s still pretty dry out there and it doesn’t take much to start a fire. He says those out harvesting should be especially careful.
