Fire destroys wood shop

UPDATED: CRESCO - At 8:54 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023, the Howard County Sheriff’s Office took a 911 call of a shed fire at 7011 Unity Ave., northwest of Cresco.  

Cresco Community Fire Department Chief Neal Stapelkamp said, “The entire shed was fully involved upon arrival, with fire threatening another structure that was very close to the fire.  Initial efforts were to save the threatened structure, which was accomplished, and then the fire department worked to extinguish the involved structure.”

Howard County Sheriff Tim Beckman reported the owner of the shed was Fred Miller. It was an Amish woodworking shop about 50x60 feet.

“Fred said he was warming up a diesel engine in the shed with a kerosene heater, and he went to town to get a battery.” When he came back, he noticed the smoke, and he tried to put the fire out with fire extinguishers. 

Beckman added, “He said he almost had the fire out, but was just a couple minutes too late. The shed is obviously a total loss.”

Stapelkamp noted heat was restored to the adjacent building that was saved, which was the Woodworking Finishing Building. 

Cresco Community Fire Department kept the fire from spreading to the nearby shed, but it had some damage from the heat. 

The temperature that day hovered around zero with wind chills reaching negative 30ºF.

Cresco firefighters were on scene for approximately three-and-a-half hours and   were assisted on scene by the Lime Spring Fire Department, Regional Health Ambulance Service, the Howard County Sheriff’s Office and Cresco Fire Dispatch.