Sheldon, Iowa — A recreational vehicle (RV) that was being lived in was destroyed in a fire near Sheldon Thursday night, February 20th, 2025.
According to Sheldon Fire Company Chief Brad Hindt, firefighters were paged a few minutes before 8:00 p.m. to the area of 310th Street and Oak Hill Avenue, a mile and a half east and a mile north of the highways 18 and 60 interchange. The page said there was an RV on fire near a building. The actual location was 5187 310th Street, which is almost a mile further east.
Hindt says Sheldon Fire had a quick response since it was their meeting night and they were in the middle of rope training. He says when they got there, firefighters found an RV completely engulfed in fire next to a metal building as well as a debris pile on fire. Hindt says, “Firefighters had to set up in the field next to the acreage since there was no way to get on the acreage with the amount of junk on the acreage.” He says one crew made an attack on the RV while the second cleared a path to get to the building “through trees and junk.”
He tells us firefighters located a window on the north side of the building. They took out the window and found the wall of the building on fire. At that time Sanborn firefighters were called for mutual aid. Firefighters made that window into a doorway to gain access to the fire inside the building. According to Hindt, the fire was under control in about 20 minutes. He tells us, “The property owner called a neighbor with a payloader to come and pull the RV out of the grove and junk so it could be overhauled.”
Hindt says, “In speaking with the person that was living in the RV at this time, he said he was burning some trash near the RV, something in the trash pile exploded and caught other combustibles under the RV on fire. He tried to put it out with snow, but the fire quickly spread within the RV. The RV was a late-model Dodge RV. It was destroyed and there is severe damage to the metal siding and wood structural supports of the metal building.”
No injuries were reported.
Firefighters were back in service in two and a half hours.
Sheldon Fire was assisted by the Sanborn Fire Department, O’Brien County Dispatchers, O’Brien County EMA and Cliff Bootsma for the payloader.
