MASON CITY – A shelter house in Mason City was set ablaze and suffered severe damage, and police are hunting for possible culprits in the debacle.
On June 19, 2025, at about 12:24 AM, the Mason City Fire Department was dispatched to East Park for a bench on fire near shelter house #2 (pictured at top) in East Park. The department says that the initial size up of the situation noted a single-story stone structure with a small wood frame addition and large open shelter roof with the “alpha side” heavily involved. Firefighters began a fire attack and had a good knockdown rather quickly. Some firefighters were assigned fire ground support and assisted by forcing entry into each door of the structure for the attack crew to enter and check for extension. All doors on the building were locked with the deadbolts and the door to the storage portion of the building was also padlocked shut.
Mason City police arrived and talked to multiple people around the park and got no investigation information from any of them. MCPD also interviewed the reporting party and gathered a statement that the fire when reported was located near the bench and was only about the height of the bench.
According to investigation findings, the area of origin of the fire is determined to be outside the wall of the structure under the overhang on the “alpha side” near the porta jon and the bench. The point of origin remains undetermined due to mass loss of materials around origin, with the porta jon being reduced to a 6-inch-tall pile of melted plastic, and the bench having only the metal support brackets remaining. The MCPD says the cause of the fire is undetermined at this time but remains under investigation due to the lack of potential ignition sources in the area providing suspicion of the fire being set by an ignition source that was removed from the area of origin i.e. an open flame. The property value is valued at $50,000 and there was $30,000 in loss, plus $25,000 in destroyed contents.
NIT contacted the Mason City police department, and they say an investigation is underway.
“We do have some leads,” a police spokesman confided.
“We have search warrants (for information) in-process currently. We will review the data, and then make a decision how to proceed. As of last week, we were still waiting on some of the requested info to be delivered.”
Mason City’s Historic Preservation Commission held a special meeting at East Park on June 19, shortly after the fire that severely damaged Shelter House 2. The building was not a contributing structure to the East Park National Register Historic District, but there was concern that the reconstruction or replacement of the building would fit the historic character of the park and meet the floodplain requirements.
City Hall’s Development Services staff is working with Parks Department and the Park Board on next steps.