Le Mars, Iowa — Three Sioux County Fire Departments assisted with a fire call in Le Mars’s territory near Struble on Wednesday, September 2, 2020.
According to Le Mars Assistant Fire Chief Steve Schwarz, about 3:15 p.m., the Le Mars Fire Department was called to the report of a controlled burn out of control at 34619 120th Street, a mile south and two and a half east of Struble or five and a half miles north and a mile and a half east of Le Mars.
The chief says the fire department saw a burn pile on fire, with an abandoned house three-quarters-to-fully engulfed as they approached the scene.
He says when they first got there, there were power lines sparking so they called the rural electric coop. Then they cooled the outer buildings and finally attacked the abandoned house.
Schwarz says no injuries were reported.
The fire department was assisted by firefighters from Orange City, Alton, and Maurice.
He says the cause of the fire appeared to be embers or heat from the burning pile.
Assistant Chief Schwarz reports that the building was totaled in the blaze.
He says the firefighters who responded were on the scene for about three hours.
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The day before, on Tuesday, Sioux Center firefighters were called to a smoke-in-the-basement call in the 2 p.m. hour in northwest Sioux Center.
Firefighter Dale Vander Berg says it turned out to be a belt going bad on a laundry appliance. He says once they found out what they were dealing with, they were back in service in short order.
