UPDATE: This even has been postponed. No new date has been announced.
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Sheldon, Iowa — The Sheldon Fire Company and some other area fire departments are going to get some practice this weekend and early next month as they burn down a couple of houses for Village Northwest Unlimited.
Village CEO Barry Whitsell tells us about it.
He tells us how they feel about it.
Whitsell says they really couldn’t have repurposed or sold the houses.
But Whitsell says these homes have communal bathrooms with only curtains for stalls. He says nowadays people with disabilities and their families are looking for places where they can be served in smaller, family-like environments.
He says the houses also wouldn’t have sold very well.
So, Whitsell says, they decided to do the best thing they could with them and offer them for training for firefighters. He says it also saves VNU the cost of bringing in a demolition crew.
Sheldon Fire Chief Brad Hindt gives us the details of this Saturday’s burn. He says that weather permitting, it was slated to be Saturday, April 22nd. They were going to start to set up at 7 a.m. and at 8 a.m. they were going to begin live fire training for the firefighters and then they will burn it down.
Hindt says the Sheldon Recreation Trail was going be closed from Sunrise Court to the south side of Sunrise Park beginning at 7 a.m. and remain closed until a time that it is determined that it is safe to re-open, as the house is alongside the trail.
Residents in that area were also advised that they could see discolored water during the morning hours of the training event. Hindt asked people to please avoid the area.
