Northwest Iowa — The burning ban for O’Brien County has been lifted. But the burning ban for Sioux County remains in effect at this time.
A number of fires have been reported in recent days.
The Granville Fire Department was called to a cornfield fire on Nest Avenue on Sunday night, about 7:20 p.m. Also paged to the fire, via an automatic aid agreement was the Paullina Fire Department. Granville Fire Chief Karl Kellen says the farmer was attempting to burn cornstalk leaves out of the ditch. He says his neighbor saw the fire and called it in. Kellen says since there was a burning ban in place, they extinguished the fire.
The Orange City Fire Department responded to two similar calls on Monday. Orange City Chief Denny Vander Wel says both of them were on 460th Street. He says in both instances, farmers were burning and shouldn’t have been. He reminds people that the Sioux County burning ban is still in effect, even after the rain that was received. Furthermore, says Vander Wel, even if there weren’t a burning ban, you are still supposed to call the county communications center to advise them that you are going to burn. Chief Vander Wel says he spoke to those responsible for the fires and explained the situation.
On Saturday afternoon, the Rock Valley Fire Department had a call like that too. Rock Valley Fire Chief Brent Eshuis reports a farmer near that town was attempting to burn his terraces and fenceline in the 20 to 30 mile-per-hour winds of Saturday. He says that was not a good idea — and plus the burning ban is still in effect, so they put out the fire.
Incidentally, the Paullina and Granville Fire Departments also assisted the Cleghorn Fire Department with some fires on Saturday.
As far as the O’Brien County Burning Ban, it was set to expire at 5 p.m. this Tuesday evening. O’Brien County Emergency Manager Jared Johnson tells us the O’Brien County Board of Supervisors approved the lifting of the burn ban Tuesday morning. He says the request to lift the burn ban was sent to the State Fire Marshal’s Office for review and was approved.
