Sheldon, Iowa — An industrial building in northern Sheldon was damaged in a fire on Friday night, March 7th, 2025.
According to Sheldon Fire Chief Brad Hindt, a few minutes before 7:00 p.m., the Sheldon Fire Company was paged for a possible shed fire in the area of the 500 block of North 2nd Avenue. When they got there, firefighters found a working fire with visible flames in the window on the south side of the building and flames exiting the roof of the building. Firefighters made a quick knock down of the fire through the window, while crews forced entry through the walk-in door, advanced into the building and extinguished the fire.
Hindt says a connection was made to the fire hydrant and about 500 ft of 5” supply hose was laid to supply water to Engine 4 and the ladder truck. Firefighters deployed the ladder and used an elevated water stream to extinguish the fire that was venting out of the roof.
Firefighters had to remove steel interior wall panels to get to the fire that was between the walls. They also had to remove the insulation in part of the ceiling and wood studs to look for fire extension, according to the chief.
He tells us the owner of the building told him that he had started the wood burner about 2:30 that afternoon and left the building about 6:00 p.m. and didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.
Hindt says that most of the damage was around the south wall and ceiling, leading firefighters to believe the cause of the fire was most likely the chimney of the wood burner. He says no one was injured.
According to Hindt, the Sanborn Fire Department, Sheldon Community Ambulance Team, Sheldon Police Department, O’Brien Communication Center, and MidAmerican Energy provided assistance.
Sheldon Fire was back in service after about three and a half hours.
