No Injuries Reported In Early Morning Apartment Building Fire In Okoboji
No Injuries Reported In Early Morning Apartment Building Fire In Okoboji
April 11, 2022Steve Schwaller
(Okoboji)– No injuries were reported early this (Mon.) morning in a fire at an apartment building in Okoboji. Arnolds Park-Okoboji Fire Chief Chris Youngbluth tells KUOO news firefighters were called around 1:00 am to 1511 Country Club Drive, near the airport in Okoboji…
“Basically we were disptached for a smoke in the apartment type call. Law enforcement arrived and confirmed that there was some smoke and fire in the wall of the apartment building. They worked on getting folks evacuated from the building and then we arrived we were able to pinpoint the location of the fire which was actually under a second story deck, outside deck, that had some fire behind the siding and above a sliding glass door on the lower level apartment.”
Yungbluth says most of the physical damage was limited to the one apartment…
“There would be some structural damage basically to what we call the header, or the top part of the sliding glass doors that go out to the deck. Some of the siding we had to remove to get to the base of the fire, and then very minimal or light smoke damage to two of the apartments.”
Yungbluth says the occupants were allowed to return to the apartments once crews were done on the scene…
“Yeah, they were. It was able to be occupied. Again, real light smoke inside the building. It was cleared out pretty much by the time we were done, so they were able to go back in. They’ll just have to do some exterior work on the building.”
Yungbluth says 11 firefighters were on the scene about an hour. He says they were assisted by the Arnolds Park and Okoboji Police Departments, Lakes Regional Healthcare ambulance and the Dickinson County Communications Center. Yungbluth says the Spirit Lake Fire Department was placed on standby but was later canceled.
