Story originally printed in the Tomah Journal or online at www.tomahjournal.com
Published - Sunday, May 18, 2008
City fires could have been worse
The Tomah Fire Department responded to two fires this week that Fire Chief Kevin Decorah said could have been worse.
The fire department received a call around 8 a.m. on Sunday for a fire at Cardinal IG. A commercial floor sweeper had caught fire at Dock 20. When the floor sweeper began smoking, a Cardinal IG employee managed to get it outside before it caught fire.
“My guys had the flames pretty much out when I got there,” Decorah said. “They (floor sweepers) run on propane, and it got hot enough that it blew out its pressure release valve.”
The fire department was on scene for roughly an hour. Smoke was also ventilated from the building, and there were no injuries.
On Tuesday, just before 9 a.m., the Fire Department responded to a car fire in the parking lot of Burnstad’s. A diesel truck from the early 1990s, owned by Burnstad’s employee Russ Courtade, had caught on fire in the engine compartment. Burnstad’s employees were made aware of the fire and no other cars in the parking lot were damaged.
“A customer came in the store and told us somebody’s truck is on fire,” Burnstad’s Cashier Supervisor Rosemary Zawacki said. “It was a freak accident. We are just thankful the customer told us what happened so we could move the other cars.”
Decorah said that the truck rolled down into the lowland off the east side of the parking lot. Firefighters were on scene for roughly 30 minutes. Decorah believes that the truck is a total loss.
All stories copyright 2006 Tomah Journal and other attributed sources.