No injuries after fire in downtown Hawarden, IA

HAWARDEN, Iowa (KTIV) - No injuries were reported after a fire broke out early Monday afternoon downtown Hawarden, Iowa.

Emergency crews responded to a structure fire at 809 Central Avenue. The building that had the fire houses the businesses “Big Sioux Screen Printing” and “Big Sioux Outdoors.”

Once on the scene, other area fire departments were called in for assistance. Hudson, Alcester, Akron, Ireton and Sioux Center were brought in to help Hawarden Fire & Rescue.

The fire was contained to the one building, with surrounding buildings only suffering smoke damage.

The business co-owner, who is also the EMS Director for Hawarden was grateful no one was hurt.

“First of all, when you hear the address of your business you have a hard time swelling,” said Jeff Nohava, Hawarden EMS Director & Co-Owner of Big Sioux Screen Printing and Big Sioux Outdoors. ”But you have to do your job and nobody was in the building and there was nobody hurt, no loss of life.”

Nohava said it seems like the building will be considered a total loss. he also said they don’t know what’s next for their business as they’ll have to wait for an update from their insurance company.

The city has said it is willing to lend a helping hand as they normally do in these tough situations.

“Hopefully, we can get that assessment done pretty quickly and get him perhaps if we need to as we did with Jen and Central Cafe, relocated somewhere to get their business back going and get them on their feet and see what we can do for the building,” said Hawarden Mayor Ric Porter.

The cause of the fire is not known at this time.

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