Radio Iowa

Iowa's Radio News Network

You are here: Home / Archives for Fires/Accidents/Disasters

DMACC offers free class to high school girls to get them interested in firefighting, EMS

By

Students in fire training at DMACC.

Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) in Ankeny is offering a free class to high school girls in tenth through 12th grade to learn about being a firefighter or in Emergency Medical Services.

The chair of the DMACC Fire Service/Paramedic program, Dewey Anderson, says the four-hour class will be hands-on. “We have a fire truck out here, we are going to have them learn about the different parts of firefighting. We also will have our DMACC ambulance there and they will learn about Emergency Medical Services and hopefully generate some excitement,” Anderson says.

He says firefighting is a profession that has been dominated by men, but they are trying to show women there’s a place for them too. “I think for a lot of years it was viewed as you have to be big and burly and manly to do this type of work. But really….you do have to be in shape, but you have to have some smarts. You have to understand the concepts of what goes into firefighting,” Anderson says.

He says the methods have changed through the years. “There’s a lot of science behind firefighting — it isn’t just riding the fire truck and throwing some water on the fire.You have to know different things such as what type of fire you are fighting and how to fight it. You have to know how to hook up hydrants, you have to know how to don protective gear correctly. All of that stuff goes into being a firefighter,” according to Anderson. “It’s really technical, it’s changed over the years and it’s a lot more technical. I  am hoping that some of these girls will get excited enough about the whole process to be able to consider that as a career.”

He says there are many women in rural volunteer fire departments, but metro departments have lagged behind. Anderson says they want to see more women in their program. “We have maybe one or two a year that go through the fire science program here at DMAAC. I’ll tell you they can get jobs very easily once they graduate. That’s the word we are trying to get out also — get you associate’s degree in fire science and you can get a good paying job once you complete the program,” Anderson says.

You can find out more about the program online at: www.dmacc.edu/careerdiscovery. Or you can call Dewey Anderson at 515-965-7051 to discuss the class and program.

 

Search ramped up for missing autistic teen in La Porte City

By

Jake Wilson

It’s now been nearly two weeks since a teenager with autism disappeared in northeast Iowa. Police have found no sign of 16-year-old Jake Wilson, who left his home in La Porte City on the evening of April 7 for a walk to a nearby creek.

Black Hawk County Sheriff Tony Thompson told reporters Friday afternoon that investigators still believe Jake made it to the creek and “something bad happened” when he got there.

“While it’s frustrating to have to admit that our investigation is not developing huge or important leads, it’s just as validating to know that everything is continuing to point towards what we originally thought it was when we first started on Saturday evening (April 7), searching until about 1:30 in the morning,” Thompson said. He added, investigators are not ruling out the possibility of an abduction.

Thompson sought to clarify a notice issued earlier this week which asked for information about a person who may’ve been seen in Jake’s neighborhood. “Don’t misconstrue what went out,” Thompson said. “I think a lot of people said: ‘a-ha, they’ve got a suspect!’ It could have just as easily been somebody describing Jake walking…so, the information that we had – we were looking for corroboration, a second, third, fourth set of eyes that could confirm what they saw that night, at roughly that time.”

This weekend, crews are planning to use drones, sonar, and dogs to further search Wolf Creek. La Porte City Police Chief Chris Brecher said the “ramped up” effort follows changes in the weather. “We’ve been getting kayaks out there, going up and down, trying to get into the logjams that have remained in the creek,” Brecher said.

“Just with the water elevation changes that we’ve had, it has been fairly significant, so there is that opportunity to where the water would be stirring things up, shifting around…it might open up a few spots that we haven’t been able to see before.”

This week, volunteers in La Porte City tied blue ribbons to light poles as a sign of support for the Wilson family. The color blue has been tied to autism awareness campaigns.

 

House votes to let townships raise property taxes for ambulance service

By

This week the Iowa House unanimously passed a bill designed that may give rural Iowans who don’t have ready access to ambulance services another avenue to get it.

Representative Zach Nunn of Bondurant said Myrna Hunt’s story about her husband’s heart attack in late 2013 helped spur the action. Hunt told legislators her husband died on their front steps in Runnells, just a couple of blocks away from the volunteer fire department.

“She called 911 for the volunteers to come and after 20 minutes she called 911 again and more than an hour later, when the volunteers finally arrived and escorted her husband to a hospital here in Des Moines, he’d already passed away from cardiac arrest,” Nunn said. “This is just one of many tales that come from our volunteers across the state who are doing the best they can with limited resources.”

The bill would let residents in unincorporated areas — outside city limits — petition for a vote that would raise property taxes in the township to pay for emergency medical services. Representative Amy Nielsen, the former mayor of North Liberty, said the lack of access to ambulance services in rural areas is troubling.

“I believe that this bill is a good first step in making EMS an essential service, just like fire protection,” Nielsen said.

Representative Bobby Kaufmann of Wilton said legislators have been working on this bill for six years.

“I think all of us enjoy going to our EMS ambulance service pancake breakfasts, but that’s ridiculous that they have to do that just to be able to fill the gaps in their budget,” Kaufmann said. “…This bill is just a start, but I think it’s a great start.”

The bill now goes to the Senate for review.

Des Moines County Sheriff investigating woman’s death

By

A woman’s death and a car fire are under investigation in southeast Iowa.

Des Moines County Sheriff’s deputies and a fire crew from Mediapolis were called Tuesday evening to the scene of a car on fire in a field. Upon arrived, the found a woman – dead – lying on the ground near the burning vehicle. Her name has not been released. An autopsy was scheduled for today.

Deputies said 57-year-old Bradley Wischmeier, who lives on the property, admitted to driving the vehicle in the field when it got stuck and caught fire.

 

Man dies in farm accident near Rock Valley

By

A accident on a farm in northwest Iowa left a man dead.

Fifty-two-year-old Bradley Peetsch, of Baxter, Minnesota, was killed when he was run over by a payloader being operated by 17-year-old Joey Van Ginkel of Rock Valley. According to the Sioux County Sheriff’s Office, Peetsch was walking behind the payloader as Van Ginkel was backing it up on a farm four miles west of Rock Valley.

The accident, which happened Monday afternoon, remains under investigation.

(By Mark Buss, KSOU, Sioux Center)

 

Expert talks about autism issues raised by disappearance of La Porte City teen

By

Jake Wilson

It’s been 11 days since a young man with autism from northeast Iowa vanished without a trace. Sixteen-year-old Jake Wilson was last seen leaving his home in La Porte City on foot the night of April 7th. Kris Steinmetz, spokeswoman for the Autism Society of Iowa, notes how family members said Jake wanted to visit a nearby stream.

“Those with autism are often drawn to bodies of water, moving water, that is common,” Steinmetz says. “The other side of that is that they don’t always have a good sense of safety or safety skills or how to keep themselves safe which makes it very difficult for a family who has a family member like that.” Hundreds of volunteers joined in the initial searches for Jake, a search which is now being handled by a scaled-back group of law officers in Black Hawk County. Steinmetz says people with autism can be very focused and will wander from home.

“They will really have an idea or a place they want to be or something they want to do and will do whatever it takes to get there,” she says. “My heart just breaks for this family because I understand this is something he’s done before.” Steinmetz says there is another reason why he may have wandered away.

“Even though he’s a teenager, his ability to think and reason is more of a nine-year-old,” she says. “They have already looked into this. Maybe he’s hiding because he’s scared. Maybe he’s hiding because he thinks he might get into trouble for not being home.”

Anyone with information on Wilson’s whereabouts is asked to call the Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Department at 319-291-2515.

(By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)

 

Charles City man dies in accident east of Marble Rock

By

A Charles City man died Thursday morning when his SUV collided with a bus.

A state patrol crash report shows 72-year-old Harold Vermeer failed to stop as a stop sign and his vehicle was struck by the bus, driven by 32-year-old Michael Katcher of Greene. Vermeer was killed in the crash. Katcher was injured and taken to a hospital in Waverly. The crash happened around 8:25 a.m. Thursday in Floyd County at the intersection of 270th Avenue and Packard Avenue. That’s just east of Marble Rock.

(By Chris Berg, KCHA, Charles City)

 

Kalona boy struck by SUV while riding his bike

By

A child was hit by a vehicle while riding a bicycle Wednesday in southeast Iowa.

An Iowa State Patrol crash report shows the 7-year-old boy was crossing Highway 22 on his bike, in Kalona, when he was struck by an SUV. It happened around 4:30 p.m. The boy was air lifted to University of Iowa Hospitals in Iowa City. According to a Facebook post from his mother, he’s going to okay be received several stitches on his face.

A 42-year-old New London woman, Lynette Wilson, was driving the SUV.

Winter conditions blamed for fatal accident near Norwalk

By

An ice-covered bridge is blamed for a crash that killed a Des Moines teenager.

The crash happened around 8 p.m. Sunday on Highway 5 near Norwalk.

Eighteen-year-old Malik Rucker was a passenger in the car that entered a ditch and rolled several times.

His father, 46-year-old Famous Rucker, was driving and lost control of the car while crossing an icy bridge, according to an Iowa State Patrol crash report.

Malik’s mother, 41-year-old Aisha Rucker, was injured in the crash.

Malik Rucker was a senior at Des Moines Lincoln High School.

 

Idaho man dies in Cass County accident on I-80

By

One person died Friday morning during an accident on an ice covered bridge in western Iowa’s Cass County.

The Iowa State Patrol said a pickup pulling a fifth-wheel camper was traveling east on Interstate 80 at around 9:20-a.m., when it hit a patch of ice on a bridge. The pickup and trailer jackknifed into the median and struck a fixed metal guard rail. The impact flipped the truck over. It came to rest on the right lane of I-80 westbound, at about the 72 mile-marker. The trailer came to rest on the guard rail, in the median.

The driver of the pickup, 59-year old Scott Hawke, of Rigby, Idaho died at the scene. Authorities say he was wearing a seat belt. The crash caused traffic to be backed up for nearly two-hours

(By Ric Hansen, KJAN, Atlantic)