Orange City, Iowa — A ground hay pile was destroyed in a fire fought by five fire departments on Thursday, July 27, 2017 near Orange City.
According to Orange City Fire Chief Denny Vander Wel, just before 2:00 p.m., the Orange City Fire Department was called to the report of a hay fire at Robert Wassenaar’s dairy farm at 4280 Jackson Avenue, just north of the Orange City city limits on K64.
The chief says the fire department saw the hay pile ablaze as they approached the scene. Round bales of hay were being ground up, and the pile of ground hay was on fire. Vander Wel says they moved the large pile of hay due to its proximity to a large silage pile, then broke it up with payloaders and front-end loaders and cooled the hay with water.
Vander Wel says no injuries were reported.
The fire department was assisted at the scene by fire departments from Alton, Hospers, Granville, and Sioux Center. In addition, VanderWel says the Le Mars Fire Department covered Orange City’s fire station in case any more calls came in.
He says the cause of the fire is undetermined, but he would guess that perhaps some metal or something got in the hay and created sparks when it was ground up.
No damage estimate is available.
He says they used 10,000-12,000 gallons of water to fight the fire, and crews were on scene for about an hour and 45 minutes.
