CRESCO, IOWA – A Northern Iowa businessman crawled through a fiery building to escape an inferno.
The Cresco Fire Department responded to a Structure Fire at Good Times Bar & Grill located at 104 North Elm Street Thursday evening at 7:39pm. Arriving fire personnel found smoke coming from windows, doors, and the roof line. Immediate evacuations were ordered of all tenants in the apartments that are above all businesses within this block. Entry was made by firefighters at which time active fire was found to be in the basement as well as a very heavy heat and smoke load throughout the downtown Main Street building that is currently under construction with plans to be open for business in the near future. Firefighters were able to safely access the basement and extinguish the fire. Once the fire had been contained and isolated, efforts were made to ventilate the building of heat and smoke. Tenants of the south buildings have been displaced at this time and others were allowed to return to their homes.
The owner of the business, John Wedl, was working in his office of the building on the upper level when the fire was discovered. Wedl left his office and encountered extreme smoke and heat and was able to crawl the length of the building to access an egress stairwell in the west and south sides. John felt lucky to have escaped as the fire had likely been burning for an extended period of time before discovery, authorities said. There were no injuries reported and Firefighters remained in scene until approximately 12:30 AM.
Cresco Fire was assisted on scene by the Cresco Police Department, Howard County Sheriff’s Department, Regional Health Ambulance Service, Alliant Energy, Black Hills Energy, City of Cresco Water Department, Protivin Fire Department, Ridgeway Fire Department, Lime Springs Fire Department, Howard County Emergency Management, Fareway Stores, Kwik Star Stores, McAllister Catering, and many area citizens. Additionally, Decorah Fire was on standby in Cresco with an additional Aerial Fire Truck if needed. Cresco Fire thanked all for the great support.
