Jamestown Rural firefighters battle grass, garage fires in Stutsman County

A pair of fires reported just 10 minutes apart on Thursday afternoon sent Jamestown Rural crews racing across Stutsman County, where one blaze threatened a rail loop near Spiritwood and another destroyed a garage and vehicle about 7 miles south of Jamestown.

The first call came at about 4:10 p.m. to the 3200 block of 93rd Avenue Southeast, where five units and eight firefighters responded to a grass fire near the rail loop by Dakota Spirit in the Spiritwood Energy Park Association’s industrial park. Fire Chief Brian Paulson said the fire started on the north end of the rail loop. Two additional units and two more firefighters were later sent to the scene, and the Sanborn Fire Department backed the response with two brush trucks, a water truck and six firefighters. Crews extinguished the fire after about two hours. No injuries were reported, and the cause was undetermined.

Before that scene was fully cleared, Jamestown Rural was also dispatched at about 4:20 p.m. to 8167 41st St. SE, where a garage fire had broken out south of Jamestown. Seven trucks and 20 firefighters responded to the property, where Paulson said a vehicle stored inside the garage also caught fire. The garage was attached to an unoccupied two-story home. Firefighters kept the flames contained to the garage, but both the structure and the vehicle were a total loss. The cause remains under investigation. Crews stayed on scene for about two hours, with the Stutsman County Sheriff’s Office and Jamestown Area Ambulance also responding.

The back-to-back calls underscore the fire load rural departments face across Stutsman County as spring work picks up and dry grass, outbuildings and parked vehicles can turn a small ignition into a major loss in minutes. In both incidents, quick dispatches, mutual aid and enough manpower kept the damage from spreading farther, but the losses still landed hard on two separate rural properties.

Jamestown Rural Fire Department says it has protected life and property since 1949 and covers one of the largest fire districts in North Dakota. This week’s response showed how wide that responsibility stretches, from the industrial edge near Spiritwood to farm and residential property south of Jamestown, where one fast-moving fire can tie up crews for hours and leave little behind but ash.