A fire at a home northwest of Hartley has left the residence uninhabitable.
Hartley Fire Chief Brad Meendering reports that his Department was dispatched at about 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 23 to a house and garage fire at 3137 Tanager Avenue. The residence, belonging to the Jay O’Leary family is located about three miles west and a little over half a mile north of Hartley.
The Hartley Fire Department arrived to find smoke coming from the eaves. According to Meendering firefighters extinguished the blaze using exterior hoses before conducting an overhaul, which included removing insulation.
Although there was major damage to the house, Meendering reports there were no injuries. He adds that the fire appeared to have been caused by sparks from a tractor. The O’Learys are living at the home of her parents, Kelly and Mary O’Brien in Sanborn.
The Sanborn and Primghar fire departments provided assisted at the scene. Meendering says the firefighters who responded were on the scene for about four hours.
During that time, a second fire call was received. CRP ground was being burned five miles south and four miles east of Hartley, near the intersection of 370th Street and Yew Avenue. Meedering says that the burning fenceline left unattended also burned a county bridge on 370th Street between Wilson and Yew Avenues, rendering it unusable.
According to Meendering some of the Hartley and Sanborn firefighters left the house and garage fire and joined firefighters from Everly to put out the CRP ground and bridge.
That was not the only work for Sanborn’s firefighters on that day. Sanborn Fire Chief Randy Lyman reports that prior to responding to the Hartley call they made short work of a situation in Sanborn where a woman was burning leaves and the fire got into her hedge.
Lyman adds that Sanborn Fire Department also responded to a call in their district in which someone was burning sticks next to a garage and the fire started burning the wood siding at the bottom of the garage. He says they were able to put out that fire fairly quickly as well. Firefighters remained at that second location about a half an hour.