Sibley, Iowa — A large four-wheel-drive tractor was destroyed in a fire on Saturday, September 21, 2024, near Sibley.
According to Sibley Fire Chief Ken Huls, at about 3:30 p.m., the Sibley Fire Department was called to the report of a tractor and tires on fire at 4747 180th Street, four and a half miles west of the south side of Sibley.
The chief says the fire department saw the tractor and a tire pile fully engulfed in flame as they approached the scene. He says they used water and foam to fight the fire.
Huls says the owner had been leveling silage piles with the tractor the night before. He says something shorted, and ignited something on the tractor — possibly hydraulic fluid. Huls says they were able to save the nearby bean field, but there was nothing they could do to save the tractor.
He says the cause of the fire appeared to be electrical in nature.
Chief Huls reports that the tractor, valued at about $100,000 was totaled in the blaze.
He says the firefighters who responded were on the scene for about 45 minutes.
