Paullina, Iowa — Several people were evacuated and a commercial building in Paullina is a total loss after a fire on Christmas Eve.
Paullina Fire Chief Ryan Harper has just released information stating the fire department was paged out to 4551 Redwing Avenue — AgState — the former Circle S repair shop in Paullina just before 6:10 a.m. on Christmas eve for a building on fire.
He says when they got there, they found active fire and smoke coming from the south end of the building. A few minutes later the site manager for AgState arrived on the scene and informed them that the building had a propane truck inside with 4,000 gallons of propane in the tank. Harper says they immediately started an evacuation plan for people living in the area. Fire and Ambulance personnel went door to door alerting residents of the hazardous situation and evacuated them to the South O’Brien High School.
At approximately 9:30 am after the location of the fire had been inspected by the fire department and O’Brien County EMA with the help of a drone, the area was deemed safe for residents to return to their homes. At that point, the only thing that was still actively burning was a feed trailer with approximately 48,000 lbs of feed on it, according to Harper.
He tells us the building and its contents were a total loss. Early estimates of loss are pushing over a million dollars in loss.
According to Harper, firefighters were on-scene for nearly four hours. Other area agencies that assisted included the fire departments from Granville, Calumet, Primghar, Sheldon, and Sutherland, as well as the Paullina Ambulance Squad, the O’Brien County Sheriff’s Office, the O’Brien County Emergency Management Agency, the Sutherland Police Department, South O’Brien Schools, The Prarie Market, JW’s, and many local citizens.
Harper tells us the cause of the fire is still under investigation by the Paullina Fire Department and Iowa State Fire Marshals Division.
