Fire destroys half of home

Firefighters from all across Jasper County were called to 7310 Highway F62 W. Wednesday afternoon to extinguish flames that nearly decimated an entire house.

Tony Mosher, the assistant fire chief for the Prairie City Fire Department, said that it took roughly 20 minutes to extinguish the flames.

“We got her stopped. We were pretty lucky,” Mosher said.

Mosher said that the fire caused a lot of smoke and heat damage to the west end of the house while the east side was destroyed by the fire. Some of the framework of the house was all that was left on the east end.

“We did pretty good,” Mosher said. “I didn’t think we’d save it.”

A female occupant of the house was transported via ambulance to Skiff Medical Center. The Newton Fire Department wouldn’t release her name, but Mosher said that she was out of the house when firefighters arrived on the scene.

The Prairie City Fire Department received assistance from the Monroe, Colfax, Reasnor and Newton Fire Departments. He said that during the day, the Prairie City Fire Department only has three or four people in town because most of them work out of town.

“After 5 o’clock it’s usually not too bad,” Mosher said. “From about 5 o’clock at night until 6 in the morning, everybody’s around.”

The cause of the fire is still being investigated.

Staff writer Dave Hon may be contacted at (641) 792-3121, ext. 425, or at dhon@newtondailynews.com.