On Monday, April 11, 2022, the Nielsen family who live just East of Standard needed the help of rural fire departments and neighbours to avoid a potential disaster.
Belinda Nielsen and her husband Matt were settling in around 10:30 p.m.. when the dog started barking and the cattle were restless, she said that was normal and they didn't think too much of it until she heard what sounded like an explosion or a gunshot.
She got up to check and saw their tractor that was parked by their 18,000L fuel tank was engulfed in flames.
She explained how her husband and neighbours Brent and Lindsey Koole were key in getting things under control as best they could.
"Matt ran out, got the cows out because the cows are right next to the tractor as well. Then called Brent and Lindsey and thankfully our water truck that they've been using had been sitting full in their heated shop, which is the only reason we didn't have a much bigger disaster."
Matt and Brent were back within minutes working to start putting out the fire. Nielsen called 911 and was grateful within 20 minutes the volunteer firefighters were on scene to get everything fully under control.
"We live 10 minutes from town and they were here in 20 minutes or so, they were so quick."
Nielsen expressed her gratitude for the volunteer firefighters in the county.
"If we didn't have volunteer firefighters like we do, just think of how alone we are out here, the fact that we have people who volunteer and jump like that to come and help their fellow farmers out, it is very important."
Nielsen said the fire inspector was out and noted it was faulty wiring around the transmission that looks to be the cause of the fire.
Knowing how much went right and how lucky they were that this wasn't much worse, Nielsen explained that her husband had been in the tractor that day working for over three hours and normally her husband would park the tractor in the Quonset.
"Thankfully it didn't set our Quonset on fire, which has all of our seed and chemical in it, it could have been much worse because we wouldn't have seen it until the Quonset was on fire."
Nielsen said that going forward after a conversation with their neighbours, they will be sure to keep the water truck full from now on, knowing without that the situation could have got out of control very quickly.
With six fire trucks on site getting things under control both Belinda and Matt could not express their thanks enough to every volunteer and especially to their neighbours for being there to avoid something that could have claimed their livelihood.
Sat, May 4, 10:00 AM
