News : Emergency Response from across the County and Beyond rushes to extinguish Fire

The fire on Friday was picked up on radar which tracks wildfires, a map that we don't want to be on!

Photo Mandy Fisher

Photo Mandy Fisher

Photo Mandy Fisher

Photo Mandy Fisher

Photo Garrison Emergency Services

Photo Garrison Emergency Services

Photo Garrison Emergency Services

Photo Garrison Emergency Services

Photo Wendy Scheel

Photo Wendy Scheel

Photo Wendy Scheel

Photo Wendy Scheel

Approaching Friday's fire along Highway 218

From about 3 miles north of the fire on Friday, just a portion of the fire

One of the farmers rushing to help

Taken from a few miles north of the fire

Correction: This fire was handled and coordinated by the Garrison Fire Department and Emergency Services. My apologies to the great men in Garrison!

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Friday afternoon was a bad combination of earth, wind and fire. With winds gusting from 35 mph up to 45 mph it was the worst time to have a field fire. Unfortunately, the local fire departments were faced with that very challenge. Normally, I ignore the sounds of sirens because it's usually an ambulance taking care of someone on a really bad day, or the police or sheriff's departments rushing to help someone else having a bad day. So I ignored the sirens for about an hour. But when I continued to hear them, and noting the wind shaking the house, I thought perhaps I should investigate a bit.

It appears that a field fire began perhaps in a ditch in the northeast corner of the 18th Ave. intersection west of Vinton on Highway 218 at the Garrison turn off. From the path of the burned ground, it appears that sparks from the fire jumped across the highway to the property located on the south side of the highway. Flames took off across the fields from there, creating havoc for our fire department.

The fire grew so large and so quickly that as I sat a good couple of miles away trying to capture the whole thing in a single shot, it was impossible to do. Smoke could be seen from Vinton and definitely could be smelled in Vinton. If my calculations are correct it was within about 3 miles of the western border of town.

On the heels of the California fires, no doubt residents were a bit concerned. The smoke was so bad that it was picked up on wildfire radar and Cedar Rapids' dispatchers were getting calls of concern smelling the smoke and thinking the fire was in their backyards.

Rarely do you see heroes do their thing in real life. But on Friday we saw our men from every fire department in the county as well as those outside the county, arrive and go to battle against the flames and wind. After the fire had burned off anything on top of the ground it left the dirt to then be blown at the firefighters. It was an awful day for a fire. (Not there is ever a good day for one.)

Arriving at the site were other heroes, not in capes but in their tractors and farm equipment to join in to fight. With disks attached, to disrupt the continual fuel for the fire, they helped to stop the spreading fire. I know, you guys would probably just say, "Aw shucks, that's what we do, and we're glad to help!"

The departments spent numerous hours dousing flames and backtracking to make sure it was really out before they could go home.

There really is no way to thank the men who fight these fires, and there's no way to thank their wives and kids who worry about them every time they go out. These are the best of the best.

In a post from the Garrison Emergency Services who coordinated the efforts answering the call, they called in assistance from across the area. Included alongside Garrison Fire & Garrison First Responders were:

Vinton Fire

Mount Auburn Fire

La Porte City Fire

Dysart Fire

Van Horne Fire

Urbana Fire

Shellsburg Fire

North Benton Ambulance

Dysart EMS

La Porte EMS

Benton County Sheriffs Deptartment

Benton County Conservation

Vinton Police Department

Pickering Backhoe

Zach Johnson

Scott & Morris Gardner

Steve Meyer

Neil Siela

John Hansen

Tim Bahr

Ben Olsen
Those who helped to feed the workers:Austin Noe and Cade Oldfather for dropping off snack items and H2 Pizza in Vinton.
Just a reminder: If there is another fire like this, and you feel the urge to watch, a reminder to those of us watching...pull off the road into a driveway leaving the roads clear for the fire trucks that are hauling water, which can be a bit tricky, think of driving around a swimming pool in the back of a truck and how hard it is to stop, go and control water sloshing on board, add in the horrendous wind...additional traffic isn't helpful. Give the trucks the WHOLE road whenever it is possible to do so.
But again, thank you to all of our firefighters across the county and beyond, you are the heroes!