(Spirit Lake)– A house fire in the Francis Sites Area and a report of smoke at Polaris Industries kept Spirit Lake firefighters busy late Monday afternoon and evening.
Fire Chief David Kollasch says the house fire call came in around 4:00 p.m. He says firefighters were called to 16522 255th Avenue in Francis Sites. Upon arriving he says flames were coming out of a window and a portion of the roof. Kollasch says firefighters had to take out a portion of the ceiling to get to the blaze.
He says the house is salvageable, but sustained a considerable amount of water damage.
No one was in the home at the time, owned by Ben Hurst of Algona.
The blaze was discovered by a passerby who called 911.
Kollasch says the fire was the result of an electric malfunction in some wiring in the ceiling.
Firefighters were on the scene about two and-a-half hours.
They no sooner got back to the station from that and they were called to a report of a smoke alarm going off at Polaris Industries.
Upon arriving, Kollasch says firefighters found smoke in the interior of the plant, which had been evacuated. Kollasch says it was the result of an earlier fire in a robot in one of the plant’s production lines. He says an employee put it out with a fire extinguisher, but there was still a considerable amount of smoke. He says firefighters ventilated that area of the plant and workers were allowed to return a short while later.
Firefighters were on the scene about 45 minutes.
