Mt. Pleasant Fire Department appreciates community response to weekend fires

MT. PLEASANT — Mt. Pleasant Fire Department gratefully accepted assistance from many organizations, businesses, agencies, and individuals as they responded to two substantial fires over the weekend.

According to Mt. Pleasant Fire Chief Drew Schumacher, New London and Salem fire departments assisted MPFD as they responded to a fire on the third floor of the Mapleleaf Apartments Saturday, Jan. 6.

“It affected the apartment below it and the one below that as far as water damage,” Schumacher said. “All the fire damage was in the one apartment. The third-floor north wing had heavy heat and smoke damage.”

While the initial report still is being processed, Schumacher stated that he had not received reports of any individuals needing medical transport due to the fire, but they did evacuate the whole building and Henry County Emergency Medical Services were on scene assisting.

According to Schumacher, due to the cold weather, residents were first evacuated across the street to Arbor Court Care Center before being transported to Calvary Baptist Church and the Red Cross was contacted to help find temporary shelter for residents affected by the fire.

In addition to Arbor Court, many others quickly jumped in to assist where they could including Mt. Pleasant Community School District, which provided buses on the scene for possible transportation to other temporary housing.

Other agencies that assisted included Henry County Emergency Management, Mt. Pleasant Police Department, and Henry County Sheriff’s Office, Iowa State Patrol.

“Calls like these take a lot of resources and coordination,” a statement from MPFD read. “Each one of these organizations played a hand in helping this call go well. It's these partnerships that make Mt. Pleasant and Henry County a great place.”

While MPFD successfully took care of the fire at Maple Leaf Apartments Saturday, their work was not over as they responded to another fire the next day Sunday, Jan. 7.

Just west of Mt. Pleasant in the 1100 block of Old Highway 34, MPFD responded to a garage fire early Sunday afternoon. They received mutual aid from Salem Fire and Rescue, Lockridge Fire and Rescue, and Henry County Sheriff’s Office for this call.

While the garage was not occupied at the time of the fire, Schumacher said that half of the building was lost.

According to Schumacher, the causes of both fires are under investigation.

Comments: AnnaMarie.Ward@southeastiowaunion.com