Hawarden, Iowa — Nursing home residents in Hawarden were evacuated due to a report of smoke in the building on Tuesday, July 9, 2019.
According to Hawarden Fire Chief Duane Schiefen, about 6:10 p.m., the Hawarden Fire Department was called to the report of smoke coming from the boiler room at the Hillcrest nursing home in northern Hawarden.
The chief says the fire department discovered an electric oscillating fan on fire when they got there, and they used an extinguisher to put out the fire. He reports that the nursing home staff had evacuated the residents before the fire department arrived, and says they did a great job.
Schiefen says no injuries were reported.
According to the chief, the cause of the fire appeared to be a malfunction in the fan.
Chief Schiefen reports that damage was limited to the fan and some minimal smoke in the building, which the fire department ventilated.
He says the 22 firefighters who responded were on the scene for about an hour.
According to Schiefen, the Ireton Fire Department always gets paged to structure fire calls in Hawarden, but he was just about to tell them to disregard when Ireton firefighters received a second call to an automobile accident near Ireton. The Sioux County Sheriff’s Office reports that it turned out that no one was injured in that crash, and no fire was found.
