Northwest Iowa — There were a couple of minor fire calls on Sunday and Monday in northwest Iowa.
On Sunday, the Archer Fire Department was called to the 3700 mile of Olive Avenue for a field fire at a few minutes after 5:00 p.m. That’s about a mile west of Archer.
Fire Chief Don De Boer says it was a ditch on fire, with a little bit of extension — 3 or 4 feet — into last year’s cornstalks, into which this year’s soybeans were planted.
He says they doused the flames with hand lines. De Boer says the cause is undetermined but it wouldn’t surprise him if someone had thrown a lit cigarette out of a moving vehicle.
No injuries were reported. He says the fire only burned about an eighth of a mile of the ditch, and firefighters had it out and were returning to the station within 20 minutes.
Then, on Monday at 11:45 a.m., Ireton firefighters were called to a fire at 2134 480th Street — three miles west and a mile south of Ireton. The Hawarden firefighters were also called, but Ireton Fire Chief Richard Steckelberg says they radioed in and told the Hawarden department they didn’t need to come.
He says the fire was the product of an old burn pit fire that rekindled in Monday’s strong winds. He says the fire was headed for some hay bales, but luckily, they got it put out before that became an issue. No injuries were reported, and Steckelberg says they were on-scene for about 45 minutes.
KIWA Staff Photo
