Sheldon, Iowa — The Sheldon Fire Company has had a couple of calls in the last few days.
On Tuesday, May 23rd, Fire Chief Brad Hindt tells us firefighters were paged out about 12:50 p.m. for the report of a pickup on fire on Highway 18 near 5161 320th Street. That’s a little over two miles east of the Highway 60 expressway in Sheldon.
He says when they got there, firefighters found a 2018 Chevy pickup with the passenger side front tire bearing and rubber shielding burning. The front wheel came off and crossed the lane of travel and ended up in the farm field, says Hindt. He says the driver told him he knocked the fire down with a fire extinguisher prior to the fire department arriving on scene.
Hindt says once on scene, firefighters put out the remaining fire and cooled the bearing.
He tells us that damage was limited to the front passenger tire area. The firefighters were on scene for about 20 minutes, and were assisted on scene by the Sheldon Police Department and an O’Brien County Sheriff’s Deputy.
The next day, (Wednesday the 24th), Hindt tells us firefighters were paged at about 9:45 a.m. to 603 West Park Street, which is the NCC Applied Technology building, for a truck battery fire.
Hindt says the fire was in the battery compartment on a 2004 Kenworth truck. NCC students and an instructor had already attempted to extinguish the fire with several fire extinguishers prior to the fire department arriving on scene, says Hindt. He says firefighters also hit the batteries with a fire extinguisher as they disconnected the wiring from the three batteries and then cooled them with a water extinguisher.
According to Hindt, something in the electrical system had shorted out. He says there was damage to the batteries and minor damage to the 2004 Kenworth truck belonging to NCC as well as dust from the fire extinguisher in the shop area.
The firefighters were assisted on scene by the Sheldon Police Department. He says they were back in service in about 45 minutes.
