Skip to main content

Property destroyed in July 4 fire in Hills

Lead Summary
, , , , ,
By
Lori Sorenson

Local fire and rescue crews were dispatched to Hills Monday morning for a fire in the Hills Storage Center at Church and Fourth streets.
At around 9:45 a.m. officials with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad reported they heard an explosion and saw thick black smoke coming from the building.
Hills Fire and Rescue responded, along with mutual aid from Luverne and Beaver Creek departments.
The blaze was quickly extinguished, but damage was extensive in at least two of the garage bays in the structure owned by Ross Metzger and Kelly Leuthold.
Metzger said he had been in the building just an hour before the fire and hadn’t smelled anything or noticed anything unusual.
It was determined that a 2007 9400 International semitrailer owned by Harlan Stueven, Hills, had started on fire in the building. “This isn’t how we hoped to spend the Fourth of July,” Sue Stueven said.
Fire officials said the explosion that was heard came from the semi’s front right front tire that gave way from the heat of the fire.
Arlyn Metzger keeps his semitrailer in the unit next to Stuevens’, but he had backed it out at 7:15 a.m. to haul a load of distillers grain in Sioux Center.
“I usually park my vehicle in here when I’m gone, but thankfully today I didn’t,” said Metzger, who said he also stores a 1988 Camaro in one of the units.
It’s unknown the amount of damage to property in the other units, but smoke damage was extensive.
The Rock County Ambulance was also paged to the scene. No one was injured, and the cause of the blaze is under investigation.

You must log in to continue reading. Log in or subscribe today.