Northwest Iowa — It seems like if we’ve had a dry late summer and early fall, this is fire season in northwest Iowa. During the rest of the year, we might report on one or two fires a week. Lately we’ve had several fires every day.
On Tuesday, about 3:30 p.m., a fire was reported at the Primghar city dump, and it had spread into a nearby field. Primghar Fire Chief Gary Lansink reports that he responded to the fire from Sanborn, and white smoke could be seen all the way from Sanborn. He tells us that someone must have lit something at the city dump, as the City was not doing any burning. Both the Primghar and the Sanborn Fire Departments responded.
Lansink tells us that the fire got into three fields, but luckily all three had been harvested already, so it was just stubble that burned, spelling the difference between several thousand dollars worth of damage and basically no damage.
He says he really wants to thank farmers that have disks hooked up and ready, and he really wants to thank the six farmers that showed up on the scene to help disk fire breaks.
He says they were on the scene for about two hours. He also reminds people that a burning ban is in place in O’Brien County.
Meanwhile, a tossed cigarette butt is the likely cause of a fire near Melvin a few minutes later. They were called a few minutes before 4 p.m. to a field fire on Highway 59, about a quarter-mile north of the water tower.
Melvin Fire Chief Brennan Raveling says about 25 to 30 acres burned in the fire, some of it standing corn. He also thanks the many farmers with disks that helped them out. He says they were on the scene for an hour and a half to two hours.
