Little Rock, Iowa — Fifteen homes in Little Rock were evacuated after a gas line was hit there on Wednesday night.
Little Rock Fire Chief Joe Schilling says that a 2-inch gas line was struck near a T-connection for a 4-inch line near 208 Section Line Road, which is county road L26 on Little Rock’s east side. The chief says firefighters blocked off the area and evacuated fifteen homes as a precaution. He says they kept people out of the area until Alliant Energy could get there. He says it took a while for Alliant to get the right equipment there because it was in Storm Lake. Crews were on scene for about four hours from about 5:30 to 9:30 PM, while gas continued to flow from the break in the line.
When Alliant got there Schilling says they made quick work of pinching off the line and those who were evacuated were allowed back in homes at that time — shortly before 9:30 PM.
Schilling says the fire department had another call on Thursday afternoon. He says about 2:20 PM, they were called to the scene of a combine fire on property owned by Mark Gross at 1516 Log Avenue, a mile west and a quarter mile south of Little Rock.
But the chief says that it turned out to be a minor call. He says that the combine’s operator smelled smoke as he was combining corn and quickly got the combine out into combined stubble and knocked the fire down with a fire extinguisher.
He says the fire department dumped about 50 gallons on the debris that was smoking on the top of the motor. He says the operator then took the combine back to the farm to blow out the debris.
Schilling says there was minimal damage and no damage to corn or corn stubble. He says firefighters were only on that call for about a half hour.
