Overnight Fire Destroys Barn Full Of Hay

This is what remians of the Van Waardhuizen barn that was filled with hay and a Bobcat

Oskaloosa, Iowa – Firefighters from Oskaloosa, Pella, and Eddyville were called to 2391 Ford Ave at 4:33 a.m. Monday morning in reference to a hay fire. Firefighters remained on scene until 8:30 am. Oskaloosa responded with 12 firefighters

It appears that a fire started from an electrical short in a Bobcat, caused the machinery to burn, and then ultimately caused the hay inside a metal barn to catch fire.

“It’s a big mess, smokey and gosh, the wind needs to be the other direction,” said Keith Van Waardhuizen, owner of the barn.

“We used it yesterday morning [Bobcat] and it sat all day. One of them weird things. Must have been a short in there,” said Keith Van Waardhuizen. “My first thought maybe was my management, that I’d put a wet bale in there and that got it heated up and started the fire, but he [firefigher] said it was the Bobcat,” Van Waarduizen also said.

Van Waardhuizen said the fire was noticed around 4:30 am. “I woke up and the neighbor lady down here, she works at Pella Corp. and she pulled in the yard and started ringing the doorbell just as I was getting my shirt on, and I thought oh no, and I looked out the window and I could see the glow.”

A tractor sitting in the driveway near the flames was spared.

“When we saw it, the building had collapsed already, it must have been burning two or three hours I would think before we found it,” Van Waardhuizen remembered about that first view of the fire.