Inwood, Iowa– A newer combine worth probably multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars was destroyed in a fire on Monday, October 3, 2022, near Inwood, and two other fire departments also had recent field fire calls.
According to Inwood Fire Chief Troy Van Beek, at about 2:35 p.m. on Monday, the Inwood Fire Department was called to the report of a combine fire near Cleveland Avenue and 190th Street, four miles north and a mile east of Inwood.
The chief says the fire department saw the combine fully involved in fire as they approached the scene. He says there was also some stubble on fire around the combine and a farmer with a disk disked around the combine to prevent the fire from spreading. According to the chief, they put out the fire with water and foam.
Van Beek says no injuries were reported. The fire department was assisted by the Larchwood Fire Department. He says the cause of the fire appeared to be a hot bearing on the combine head.
Chief Van Beek reports that the newer combine was totaled and may have been worth multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars.
He says the firefighters who responded were on the scene for about an hour and a half.
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Also on Monday, just after noon, Rock Rapids Assistant Fire Chief Eric Borman tells us their department was paged to the 1400 block of Ironwood Avenue, which is four miles east and a mile north of Rock Rapids, for a field fire.
He says they found multiple spots of fire in both standing beans and bean stubble and some smoke coming from the combine which had been moved out of the field. Borman tells us they hit the fire with water and also had five farmers with disks that helped disk firebreaks. He says they asked for firefighters from George and Ellsworth to come to the scene too, but got ahead of it so called them off. He assumes the fire was caused by a hot part on the combine, but he says the combine had minimal damage, with some damage to standing crops. He says they were on the scene for about an hour and a half.
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A little further south, Sioux Center Fire Chief David Van Holland reports that they had a fire call on Monday too. Theirs was called in a few minutes before 2:00 p.m. and it was to 3676 Ironwood Avenue, which is a mile north and five miles east of Sioux Center. He says they rolled up to find a little bit of a cornfield on fire. He says farmers with disks did a lot of the work, but firefighters did put out some flames too. He says they called for help from the Hull and Ireton fire departments, but stubble was really the only thing that burned. A hot part on a combine again gets the blame. He says they were there between a half hour and 45 minutes.
