News

Rock Valley, Iowa — Rock Valley firefighters responded to a fire call on New Years’s Day evening, and damage to a local institution was prevented.

According to new Rock Valley Fire Chief Brent Eshuis, the call went out about ten minutes before 8 PM on Friday night, January 1st, 2016. He says the call was to Whispering Heights at 2116 14th Street. Whispering Heights is an intermediate care facility attached to Hegg Memorial Hospital – Avera in Rock Valley.

He says when firefighters got there they discovered a fuse box on a water heater had burned. Eshuis says damage was minimal and was contained to the fuse box.

Sheldon, Iowa — A Sheldon man who suffers from Muscular Dystrophy, along with his wife, had their first skydiving adventure during the Christmas holiday.

Rob and Sharla Roozeboom of Sheldon were spending Christmas with relatives in Phoenix, when they decided to go skydiving.  Rob, the President of Rise Ministries in Sheldon, tells us how it came about.

Rob talks about the preparation for the jump.

He says that, after waiting a couple of hours for the winds to subside, Saturday’s jump was canceled, since the winds were making it too dangerous.  He says, however, that by Monday weather conditions were ideal.

Roozeboom says the jump was from 13,000 feet, and describes his exit from the airplane.

Rob’s wife, Sharla, says she was nervous for him when she saw him being prepared for the jump.

Sharla says that, when Rob went out, the door on the plane partially closed, requiring the aircraft to circle the landing zone while it was prepared for the remaining jumpers.

Meanwhile, Rob describes the trip back to Earth.

Both Rob and Sharla describe their jumps as an extremely fun experience, and both say they want to do it again.

Here is a video of Rob and Sharla’s skydiving experience.

Here are some more photos from their skydive.

Northwest Iowa — Northwest Iowa fire chiefs are asking for a little help.

Several fire chiefs have asked property owners and local citizens to help ensure that when there’s a fire, there’s no time wasted. There are a number of fire hydrants that have been buried with the snow or from the plows pushing the snow back. The fire chiefs say they would appreciate any help with digging out the fire hydrants and making them accessible to firefighters when seconds count.

Of course in an emergency, time is very critical to find and access the hydrants.

Fire chiefs say it takes less than ten minutes to dig out your neighborhood fire hydrant. While ten minutes isn’t very much time out of an average person’s day, it is ten minutes that that could mean tragedy in a fire.

They ask that you dig out a 3-foot area around the hydrant and a path to the street.

The chiefs ask everyone to please take a few moments to dig out the fire hydrant closest to your house or business.