Grass Fire North of Charles City Takes Over Four Hours, Dozen Departments to Extinguish

A grass and brush fire north of Charles City Tuesday (03.19) evening took over four hours and over a dozen fire departments to get under control and extinguish.

Charles City Fire Rescue (CCFR) says they called just before 5 pm to assist the Colwell and Floyd fire departments battle a grass fire that was spreading quickly along Shadow Avenue. The fire reportedly started after someone was burning brush behind some trees.

With help from numerous surrounding departments, firefighters were able to prevent the fire from impacting the nearby homes and stopped it from spreading across the road to additional CRP land. 

CCFR notes that winds at the time of the fire were in excess of 20 mph, which fanned the flames to burn between five and seven acres in all. They add that while there are no burn bans in effect currently, it does not mean that things will not burn and could get out of control quickly.

There were no injuries and no structures were damaged by the fires.

Firefighters were on the scene until almost 9 pm Tuesday night. 

Also assisting were the Ionia, Nashua, New Hampton, Nora Springs, and Osage fire departments. Marble Rock was called to help, but were sent back before they arrived on scene.

The Floyd County Sheriff’s Office says the fire remains under investigation, but does not say at this time if any charges are pending.