Northwest Iowa — The frequent fire calls continue, as do burning bans in Sioux and O’Brien counties.
The Sioux Center Fire Department had two of them on Wednesday. The first one was a field fire near Highway 75 and 420th Street a few minutes before noon. Sioux Center Fire Chief David Van Holland says it was caused by a hot bearing on a combine near Sioux Feed south of Sioux Center. Luckily, while it burned a couple of acres of the field, what burned had already been harvested. The farmer and another farmer assisted firefighters by disking firebreaks.
Then, later that day, about 3:35 p.m., Sioux Center firefighters were called out again for another field fire — this one on 370th Street between Harrison and Hickory Avenues, about two miles northeast of the Siouxper Center and McDonalds. Van Holland says that fire too was caused by a combine — either a bering or a belt. He says the wiring of the combine was all burned. He says there was no crop loss in that fire either. Van Holland says with a little more wind, both fires could have been a lot worse.
The Little Rock Fire Department responded to a field fire call at Log Avenue and 170th Street about 4:35 p.m., which is two miles south and a mile west of the Little Rock corner on Highway 9. Assistant Fire Chief Tom Ver Steeg says the cause of the fire is undetermined, but they wonder if it might have been caused by a hot exhaust system. He says only stubble burned, and the farmer helped them with a disk, which he says saves a lot of time for firefighters.
The Hawarden Fire Department also had a call. Theirs was about five minutes before 7 p.m. Chief Duane Schieffen says it was a ditch fire, and the cause is undetermined.
The George Fire Department put out a tractor fire in the 4100 mile of 220th Street southeast of George about 10:50 p.m. Fire Chief Bill Sprock says it was a 4-wheel drive late 90s to early 2000s tractor, and it was basically destroyed in the fire. He says he estimates it was worth nine or ten thousand dollars. He says the tractor belonged to a custom manure applicator company, and the fire was caused either by corn husks or the electrical system. The field was wet with manure, so there was no field fire.
And the Rock Valley Fire Department put out a baler fire in the 3000 mile of Dogwood Avenue in the 9 p.m. hour. Chief Brent Eshuis says that thanks to the quick thinking of the farmer, the fire didn’t spread much. He says the farmer got his disk and disked around the fire a number of times right away, stopping the fire in its tracks.
Eshuis and all the chiefs remind farmers that if they have a tractor with a disk nearby, they can really help firefighters by disking around the fire and creating firebreaks.
