Northwest Iowa — Two recent fire calls in northwest Iowa could have been much worse. And the fire chiefs in charge at both fire calls independently asked KIWA to remind farmers that are harvesting to keep a disk hooked up nearby.
The Ashton Fire Department responded to the call of a combine fire on Olive Avenue between 250th and 260th Streets at about 3:30 Thursday afternoon, September 29th. That’s roughly a mile and a half south and a mile and a half east of Ashton.
Fire Chief Andy Gacke says the farmer caught the situation early enough to prevent it from getting any worse. He says firefighters arrived to find the combine only smoldering. He tells us the firefighters extinguished the hot spots that they found.
He says the cause was probably a warm bearing on the combine, but is officially undetermined. He says no damage was reported, and they were back in service within a half an hour.
The other fire that we were able to get information on was near Hawarden. Firefighters were called to a half mile north of 440th Street and Chestnut Avenue for the report of a manure pile fire at about 4:20 p.m. on Thursday, September 29th. That’s about three miles east and a mile and a half north of Hawarden.
Hawarden Fire Chief Duane Schieffen tells us they believe the fire was caused by spontaneous combustion. He says they extinguished it with water, but they were lucky there was very little else nearby.
Both fire chiefs are requesting this year more than ever for farmers to have a disk or plow or some other tillage equipment hooked up and ready to go in case of a fire. They tell us that a disk is often the quickest way to get on top of a field fire. And with it being so dry this year, it’s extra important.
Hawarden Chief Schieffen also reminds us Sioux and a number of other counties are in a burning ban. Several fire calls are being reported every day, so KIWA joins with area fire chiefs asking everyone to be very careful.
