(Arnolds Park)– Firefighters had to deal with frigid temperatures while battling a house fire Wednesday afternoon in Arnolds Park. Arnolds Park-Okoboji Fire Chief Chris Yungbluth says they were called around 2:30 pm to 306 Iowa Street…
“Upon arrival of the fire department we had fire billowing out the second story of the structure on both sides. We were able to get a quick knock with water on it. We did page Milford fire because it was a fairly large structure and because of temperatures. We always run into problems with this cold weather. We were able to get it under control in about an hour and-a-half. We had a lot of help getting that completed with a lot of the police departments in the area blocking roads for us. The Dickinson county dispatchers getting us there and helping out by contacting our utilities. Milford, of course, coming up with their fire department and helping us out. Dickinson County EMA helped out the current residents of the house and were able to get Red Cross in contact with them to be able to help them out. And then, of course, our utilities. Black Hills Energy and Alliant Energy and the city of Arnolds Park all helped us to get the utilities under control.”
No injuries were reported…
“There were three occupants in the home; all three escaped. I didn’t have any report of injuries to them. We did have a couple of slip and falls with firefighters on the scene with the ice and the water but no injuries reported from that, either.”
Yungbluth says things went relatively smoothly considering the extreme cold…
“You know it complicates things. Equipment freezes up a lot faster. We always worry about that. We have to make sure we’re constantly running water which creates slick surfaces. Just the steps going up to the front of the house. We had to be careful getting in and out of the house because the water that was running off from the firefighting efforts, it creates slip hazards for us and could create injuries for us. We’re glad the hydrant worked great for us. Sometimes you have frozen hydrants and water supply issues, things like that. None of that happened today so everything went fairly smoothly despite the cold weather.”
Yungbluth says the cause of the fire is under investigation. He says they believe it started on the home’s upper level. Firefighters were on the scene several hours.
