*Picture from Oelwein PD
A trio of Northeast Iowa homes were heavily damaged by an early morning fire on Tuesday (06.03).
The Oelwein Police Department says they were dispatched shortly after 2 am to a report of a house fire in the 300 block of 1st Avenue NE. At the time, the caller reported the house was fully engulfed in flames.
Officers arrived at the scene and immediately began notifying neighboring residents to evacuate as the fire was spreading to nearby homes. The Oelwein Fire Department arrived about 10 minutes later to observe one house almost completely destroyed by fire. Additionally, a house to the south and a house to the west were also both engulfed in flames.
Fire departments from Hazleton, Maynard, and Fairbank were requested for mutual aid.
The cause of the initial fire is under investigation and all three structures are considered a total loss.
