Two area fire departments were called out early on Thursday, May 21, 2020.
According to Paullina Fire Chief Brent Noteboom, about 5:30 a.m., the Paullina Fire Department was called to the report of a fire with large flames east of town, near the lake.
The chief says the fire department saw a brush fire as they approached the scene. He says they used water to fight the fire. He tells us that the O’Brien County Conservation Department puts trees in a pile there to burn, and someone had dumped some old grain on it. The chief suspects some of the grain may have been moldy and spontaneously combusted, causing the fire. But he says the trees were set to be burned anyway, so they just put out the fire enough so that the Conservation officials could get there and decide what to do.
Noteboom says no injuries were reported.