Buildings Destoyed In Rural Black Hawk County Fires

With extremely dry and windy conditions, area firefighters are urging people to be extra careful when burning trash or other items on their property.

The warning comes after crews spent about five hours battling separate fires that destroyed two structures in rural Black Hawk County on Wednesday (April 1, 2015). Gilbertville Fire Chief Curt Bovy said both fires were fueled by high wind, which blew embers from burning trash into the buildings.

The first fire broke out around 2:30 p.m. at 4325 Gilbertville Road, northwest of the city. The blaze leveled a barn and destroyed a classic car and two tractors that were parked inside.

Volunteers crews from Gilbertville, Raymond and Evansdale spent about two hours at the scene.

Fire crews from the three cities responded to a second fire, which began about six hours after the first one. Firefighters were sent to 3137 Gilbertville Road around 8:30 p.m. to battle a structure fire in the Ray-mar neighborhood, southeast of Evansdale.

"We were called out tonight for a grass fire," Bovy said, "but while enroute to scene, it switched from a grass fire to a structure fire. When we arrived on the scene, a shed was totally engulfed in flames."

According to Bovy, the building and its contents were destoyed in the blaze.

"It is a medal pole building and it will probably be a total loss," he said. "It burned through the rafters so (the owners) will probably have to replace the whole building. It took us a little over an hour to get it knocked down."

Firefighters spent about three hours at the scene of the second fire.

Bovy said the two fires started the same way.

"As far as we can tell, both were caused by trash burning in a barrel," he said. "High winds blew embers into the buildings."

No injuries were reported with either fire.