(Rock Rapids Fire Department logo on fire truck door -- KIWA Staff Stock Photo)Rock Rapids, Iowa — It’s fall. Up until recently, it has been fairly dry. And farmers are in the fields. Area fire departments have been busy.
Rock Rapids firefighters have had some recent calls. Last week they responded to a tractor on fire pulling a baler, says Fire Chief Eric Borman. He says by the time they got there, the farmer had been able to get the fire out with a fire extinguisher. He says they did some mop-up work, and the farmer was able to drive the tractor away after firefighters were there about 15 to 20 minutes.
He tells us they also had a brush fire call north of Rock Rapids. He says it was difficult to access as the fire was along the river. He says they eventually found out that the fire was a controlled burn, but no one was around, so they wet down the piles so the fire wouldn’t burn anything else. He says they were there for about a half an hour.
Borman reminds everyone to call in their controlled burns. He says it’s as easy as calling your sheriff’s office’s non-emergency number and giving them the details so that firefighters don’t have to leave their families or jobs to respond to an unnecessary call. Borman also says that if you start a fire, you need to attend the fire while it’s burning.
He says they also responded to other calls recently, including an air fryer burning on a stove and an injury accident, so firefighters have been quite busy.
