Wednesday fires cause damage
Members of the Goldfield Fire Department battled a blaze three miles northeast of Thor Wednesday afternoon on the Gary Fisher farm in Norway Township. The metal shed (pictured) was destroyed and the metal barn (background) sustained smoke and fire damage. Photo courtesy of Dean Kruger, Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office.
Members of the Renwick and Goldfield fire departments investigate damage to a barn that was reconverted into a machine shop on the Gary Fisher farm near Thor. A fire broke out on the farm shortly after 4 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. Humboldt Independent photo by Kent Thompson.
Humboldt firemen Matt Ubben (with hose) and Ross Newton work to douse a riding lawn mower and grass catcher on the Todd Zuetlau property on 8th Street North in Dakota City Wednesday afternoon, after 5 p.m. The fire department was able to bring the fire under control in a short amount of time but not before a wooden shed and its contents were also damaged. Humboldt Independent photo by Kent Thompson.
By KENT THOMPSON
It was a busy late Wednesday afternoon for fire calls around the county.
Local departments were called to two fires in the span of an hour on May 3, the first being the most serious.
Four fire departments responded to the Gary Fisher farm, 3152 230th St., three miles northeast of Thor. The call came in at 4:06 p.m.
The Goldfield Fire Department was first on the scene and found a metal shed fully engulfed, according to Goldfield Fire Chief Matt Lewis.
“The roof was in partial collapse and the main thing we wanted to do was to save a plastic fertilizer storage tank and a liquid propane tank that was to the south of the shed.
“We were able to save those and were able to get much of the fire contained within the first 10 minutes,” Lewis said.
However, flames from the fire caught the upper portion of a metal barn on fire.
“Upon our arrival, we immediately called for mutual aid and Humboldt, Thor and Renwick departments responded to the scene,” Lewis said.
“We tried to concentrate on the LP and the fertilizer tank. Water supply was not an issue after the first five minutes. We were able to get tools into the building to help fight it and we used the thermal imager on the barn to locate any hot spots,” Lewis said.
The cause of the blaze is undetermined as of Wednesday evening.
“I was burning some corn husks in the field and the road ditch on my four-wheeler and I had a 20-pound LP tank on the back. I'm not sure if the gears got hot or if there was some grass around the clutch that ignited. I parked the four-wheeler in the shed and went to get another tractor and when I came back up to the yard it was on fire,” Gary Fisher said.
“He said his reconditioned metal barn got toasted pretty good. Firefighters were digging into the exterior and roof of the barn late Wednesday afternoon.
“I’ve got 12-inches of newspaper insulation in there so I’m a little concerned about that rekindling,” Fisher said.
“It could have been worse,” the Norway Township farmer conceded. The firefighters saved the fertilizer tank and that’s important given the cost of fertilizer. The firefighters from all the departments did an excellent job under the conditions,” Fisher said.
Items lost in the fire in addition to the four-wheeler were five 1,600-gallon tanks of water and a 500-gallon tank of gasoline. There were no injuries and firefighters were on scene for over two hours. No dollar estimate of damage was available.
Mower catches on fire, spreads to shed
Todd Zuetlau was taking advantage of a picture-perfect spring afternoon on Wednesday, mowing some grass in his backyard at his home at 25 8th St. N., in Dakota City.
He went in the house and when he came out a few minutes later, his Cub Cadet lawn mower was on fire.
Zuetlau and the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office and Humboldt Police Dispatch attempted to extinguish the fire but it spread to a nearby wood shed and started it on fire before the Humboldt Fire Department arrived. The fire department had to send a pumper truck from the rural Thor fire back to Dakota City.
The shed was able to be saved, despite extensive fire and smoke damage to the front. Zuetlau’s lawn mower and some items were a complete loss.
“There was wasn’t much else of value in there, some lawn furniture, an old mower and a snow blower,” Zuetlau said. He believes the lawn tractor’s engine or some component may have overheated and sparked something combustible.
The Humboldt Fire Department was on the scene for less than 30 minutes.
No one was injured.
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