Orange City, Iowa — Three Sioux County fire departments responded to the call of a field fire north of Orange City on Monday afternoon, October 12, 2015.
Orange City Fire Chief Denny VanderWel says the call went out about 12:05 PM to a field south of 400th Street on Ironwood Avenue, about three miles north of the northwest corner of Orange City.
He says as they were leaving town, they observed lots of brown smoke coming from the fire. He says the field had already been harvested, but the department had to protect a couple of areas of standing crops and a building site.
He says the fire was traveling across the field, but farmers with disks came quickly to help control the fire. The chief says they have some ideas as to what started the fire, but the official cause is unknown at this time.
He says there were no injuries reported.
Since the field had already been harvested, there wasn’t much loss to speak of.
He says that due to the strong gusty winds, they also asked for help from the Sioux Center and Alton Fire Departments.
He says fire crews were on scene for about an hour and a half fighting the fire. He says he credits the quick response of area farmers with their tractors and disks that helped control the blaze.
