Sibley, Iowa — About an acre of cornstalks was destroyed in a fire on Sunday, October 18, 2026, near Sibley.
According to Sibley Fire Chief Ken Huls, at about 4:30 p.m., the Sibley Fire Department was called to the report of a fire in a cornfield between Olive and Oriole avenues on 130th Street, about four miles north of Sibley.
The chief says the fire department saw a lot of smoke from a distance. He says the farmer had been combining corn on the other side of the field, some distance away when he saw the smoke. He drove a tractor with a grain cart over there to see what was happening. He called 911 and then tried to drive over the burning stalks to extinguish them. Huls says in so doing, the tracks of the unit got burning stalks in them, which the fire department also extinguished in addition to the other stalks that were burning.
Huls says no injuries were reported.
He says as for a cause, they guessed that maybe a leaf got too near the combine’s exhaust, started on fire, and then got carried by the wind to the other side of the field, where the farmer had not even been that day.
Chief Huls reports that about an acre of stalks burned, but nothing else of value was damaged.
He says the 10 firefighters who responded were on the scene for about a half hour.
