Sanborn, Iowa — An older van and a trailer were destroyed and a pickup was damaged in a fire on Wednesday, December 8, 2021, near Sanborn.
According to Sanborn Fire Chief Randy Lyman, about 1:30 p.m., the Sanborn Fire Department was called to the report of a car fire on 300th Street a half-mile east of Highway 59. That’s two miles north of Sanborn and a half east.
The chief says someone had loaded an older van onto a homemade trailer and had it connected to a pickup, when something started on fire on the van. The man pulled the pickup and trailer away from a nearby building but the wind blew the fire into the pickup, which started on fire as well.
He says they used foam with their water to fight the fire.
Lyman says no injuries were reported. He says the owner tells them that the fire appeared to have started in the middle of the bottom of the van. He says that the old van had been stored in a grove and he wonders if maybe there was some grass too close to the exhaust system, which may have started the fire.
Chief Lyman reports that both the van and the trailer were totaled in the blaze.
He says the firefighters who responded were on the scene for an hour and a half.