Northwest, Iowa — Field fires have begun to spring up around northwest Iowa recently, and that has prompted Crawford County to join Plymouth, Cherokee, Sioux, and O’Brien in instituting a burn ban. A field fire in northwest Iowa this week caused more than half a million dollars in damage and area fire departments were dispatched to battle a blaze in a field being harvested.
State Fire Marshal Dan Wood says now five northwest Iowa counties currently have burn bans in place.
The latest Iowa Drought Monitor report shows 80 percent of Iowa is considered abnormally dry or experiencing some level of drought. The state fire marshal is urging Iowans to think about fire safety outdoors.
And Wood says corn and soybean fields at harvest time can unfortunately be a source of kindling for a fire.
A combine and up to 50 acres of soybeans were destroyed in a field fire near Sibley on Sunday. Fire officials credited local farmers for using discs to cut fire breaks in the soil that contained the fire.
The Iowa counties in our listening area and nearby that are currently under a burn ban started with Sioux County effective September 13th, Plymouth and O’Brien Counties followed suit a week later on September 20th, and Cherokee County followed the next day, September 21st with their burn ban.
