It was a week ago Sunday (04.13) that a fire destroyed the main building of Hawkeye Preferred Tooling on Old Highway Road, just southeast of Charles City, after a piece of machinery overheated.
The blaze on April 6th was first reported about 8:30 pm. Three hours later, fire officials deemed conditions unsafe due to materials burning within the structure, requiring the evacuation of all personnel as well as residents within a half mile of the fire.
An automated message from Iowa Homeland Security was also sent alerting people in the immediate vicinity to evacuate. However, a “glitch” in the system sent messages out to a much broader area.
During Monday’s (04.14) Floyd County Board of Supervisors meeting, Supervisor Dennis Keifer said it was better to err on the side of safety.
Gordon Boge with Citizens for Better County Government added that, while the message was somewhat vague, it also came as firefighting conditions changed.
Close to 70 firefighters from Charles City, plus Floyd, Colwell, Rudd, Rockford, Marble Rock, Nora Springs, and Nashua fire departments responded to battle the blaze. Coordinating those efforts highlights recent upgrades to 911 communications in Floyd County, which Keifer said feedback, from at least two fire departments, is highly positive.
Emergency Management Agency Director Jason Webster said the new tower, just outside Rockford, has greatly enhanced their connections with other agencies.
The over $4 million in improvements also included the purchase of new emergency radios from Motorola, which Webster said eliminated most “holes in coverage” of the old system.
The new 911 communications systems went active in early March and also gets Floyd County on the statewide ISICS emergency system.
