Charles City area firefighters respond to late-night blaze at Custom Wood Products

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

About 50 firefighters from across the region responded late Saturday night to a fire at Custom Wood Products Inc., a 30,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in the city’s Southwest Industrial Park.

The Charles City Fire Department was dispatched at 11:50 p.m. Saturday, June 7, after a 911 call reported smoke coming from the building at 300 Corporate Drive.

The first arriving truck observed heavy smoke coming from the exterior vents of the large commercial structure, said Charles City Fire Chief Sam Deverell.

According to the company’s website, Custom Wood Products Inc. designs and manufactures a variety of wood products, including store fixtures, countertops, desktops, signage, molding, cabinet doors and drawer fronts.

“Due to the size of the building and the unknown materials inside, numerous additional departments were paged to provide personnel,” the Charles City department reported on its Facebook page. Fire departments from Floyd, Colwell, Rockford, Marble Rock, Nora Springs and New Hampton responded to Charles City’s mutual aid call.

“Crews were able to locate the fire and extinguish it before it spread to other materials, minimizing the size of the fire,” the Charles City department reported.

The fire was extinguished around 3 a.m., Deverell said. Crews remained on scene for several more hours for cleanup and equipment checks, and Charles City trucks were back in service by 6 a.m. Sunday.

Deverell said there were no injuries, either from the fire or the emergency response. The cause of the fire remains under investigation, but he said there is no immediate danger to the public.

Additional agencies responding to the scene or aiding in the response were the Charles City Police Department, Floyd County Search and Rescue, AMR ambulance, the Floyd County Communications Center, the Iowa State Fire Marshal’s Office, Cedar Falls State Radio Communications and MidAmerican Energy.