Northwest Iowa — Northwest Iowa fire chiefs are hoping the rain we’ve had will slow down the occurrence of accidental fires in the area.
Orange City Fire Chief Dan Roghair says his department responded to three fires in the last five days, which can all be traced back to dry conditions.
Last week they had two fires within about 12 hours of each other. One was a ditch fire and one was a shed fire. The small shed was lost in the fire, and four fire departments assisted. The Alton Fire Department gets paged to all structure fire calls that Orange City goes to, so they were there, plus, says Roghair, water was requested from both Maurice and Sioux Center. Orange City Ambulance members also assisted.
On Friday, they responded to a field fire on the Plymouth County line on K64 or Jackson Avenue, south of Carnes. Roghair says Alton and Maurice firefighters helped with those fires, too.
Roghair says he wants to thank the farmers who came with their tractors and disks to help get the upper hand on the flames in these calls. He also wants to remind people to be careful with fire, flame, and things that can get hot or throw sparks. Now that we’ve had a little rain, it will be a little better for a while, but it’s always good to keep those things in mind.
Fire officials also remind people to check their old fires to make sure they’re out. It’s a good practice anyway, but when the winds are strong, fires you thought were long out can flare up again, due to the large amounts of oxygen that the embers get from the wind. There have been cases of old burn piles nearly a month old, rekindling in the wind, so those who burn are advised to check old burn piles when it’s windy out.
KIWA Staff Photo
