Sheldon, Iowa — Two area fire departments fought a fire for two and a half hours Friday at a landfill between Sheldon and Hospers.
According to Sheldon Assistant Fire Chief Brad Hindt, the Sheldon firefighters were called out a few minutes before 6 p.m. on Friday night (June 5th, 2020) to a fire at the Northwest Iowa Solid Waste Agency landfill.
He says while they were en route, Sheldon Fire asked for mutual aid for water tankers from the Hospers Fire Department. When they arrived on the scene, Hindt says firefighters found the lower part of the landfill on fire. He says firefighters knocked down the fire and stood by as landfill employees used excavation equipment to push the burning garbage away from the rest of the pile. He says they used both water and foam to fight the fire.
Fire crews left the scene about 8:30 p.m. and Sheldon Fire was back in service at 9:45 after cleaning up and reloading the trucks, says Assistant Chief Hindt.
He says the most likely cause of the fire is spontaneous combustion.
