RUDD — A Floyd County property owner who told investigators he went into town for lunch while a brush pile burned has been assessed a $4,500 state penalty after the fire spread to abandoned mobile homes containing roughly 100 tires, sending thick black smoke into the air and drawing four fire departments.
Brandon Wood agreed to the penalty in an Iowa Department of Natural Resources administrative consent order signed by DNR Director Kayla Lyon on September 9. The order stems from an April 29, 2026, fire at his acreage at 1651 Jersey Avenue near Rudd.
According to the order, DNR’s Mason City field office received an anonymous complaint that tires and other materials were burning at an abandoned building site. Photos circulating on social media that day showed large amounts of black smoke.
Firefighters from Rudd, Rockford, Floyd and Nora Springs responded to the blaze. In a Facebook post that afternoon, Floyd County Emergency Management urged people to avoid the area and identified additional responding agencies as the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office, Iowa State Patrol, Floyd County Communications Center, Floyd County Search and Rescue, and AMR Ambulance.
Wood told a DNR investigator the following day that cleanup work and tree-waste burning had been underway since the previous Saturday. Initially, he said, winds had blown away from the structures.
On the day of the fire, Wood said they took a break to go into town for lunch. As they prepared to return, he spotted thick black smoke and called 911. He told investigators the wind had shifted and apparently carried the fire into the nearby mobile homes.
Wood repeatedly maintained that the structures and tires were not burned intentionally.
When DNR investigators inspected the property May 1, they estimated that 100 or more tires had burned. They also observed metal drums, tanks and panels, along with a boat and a pile of unburned tires outside the burn area. The brush pile was immediately north of the abandoned structures.
Floyd County Emergency Management confirmed that strong winds were blowing toward the structures that day, according to the order. The sheriff’s office told DNR the emergency call described a controlled burn that had gotten out of hand.
During a subsequent conversation, a DNR investigator told Wood that even if the fire began with the brush pile, he remained responsible for preventing it from spreading to surrounding structures. Wood said he had not had a better place on the property to burn the brush.
The order also records differing statements about Wood’s knowledge of the trailers’ contents. Initially, he told DNR he did not know what was inside and had avoided entering because of their poor condition. In a later conversation, he said he had been removing tires from the structures shortly before the fire.
DNR ultimately concluded that Wood knew tires were present, built the brush fire close to the structures and left it unattended while it spread.
The agency issued a notice of violation May 14. According to the consent order, the burning of tires and other materials did not qualify for the landscape-waste exception to Iowa’s open-burning restrictions. DNR also cited excessive smoke, pointing to an emergency management photograph showing a black plume.
The dangers of accumulated tires have previously prompted DNR warnings about waste-tire disposal and costly property cleanups. In that warning, covered by NorthIowaToday.com in 2021, the agency said burning tires creates toxic smoke and degrades air quality.
Wood’s $4,500 penalty includes $1,000 for economic benefit associated with avoided disposal costs, $2,500 for the seriousness of the violation and the government response, and $1,000 for culpability.
The order also documents Wood’s cleanup efforts. He provided receipts for waste disposal and scrap recycling during the investigation, and DNR reported that he removed the remaining tires and solid waste and submitted disposal receipts July 28.
The case follows other Northern Iowa enforcement actions involving burning debris. NorthIowaToday.com previously covered a $5,000 penalty after a trash fire near Grafton sent black smoke into town.
Under the agreement, Wood must stop illegal open burning, comply with burning regulations going forward and pay the penalty within 30 days of the director’s signature. He signed the agreement August 28 and waived his right to appeal.
(TOP PHOTO of the incident via Floyd County Iowa Emergency Management Agency.)