Crews battle house fire in Kalona

Firefighters from three departments responded to 1216 Maple Avenue in Kalona this morning after a storage shed connected to a home caught on fire.

One man, 22-year-old Corin Nisly, was in the home when the fire began. Nisly said he was sleeping when the fire started, but was awoken by his next door neighbor who saw smoke coming from the shed.

“My neighbor started pounding on the door and I was like ‘I don't know what that is,' so I slept through it,” Nisly said. “Then he opened the door and came in yelling ‘Is anyone in here?' Then he came into my room and said there was a fire and I should get out.”

Nisly said he had enough time to grab computers from the home before he left it for good.

Kalona Fire Chief Steve Yotty said a cause of the fire had not yet been determined, but he confirmed the fire began in the shed. He added items in shed included trailers, air conditioners, metals, chemicals, aerosol cans, propane tanks and paint.

“The garage is a total loss,” Yotty said. “The house is probably mostly a total loss, except we have been able to save a lot of personal stuff.”

Both Phil and Sherrie Nisly, the homeowners, were out running separate errands when the fire began. Sherrie said she could see smoke from the downtown Kalona area and realized it was in the vicinity of her home. She said as she got closer and realized it was her home, she was worried because both her husband and son were in the home when she had left. But the sight of the two standing outside the home as she arrived brought a sense of relief.

“As soon as I saw them outside, then I've been fine,” she said. “I'll probably break down at some point, but right now I'm just extremely grateful my boys are OK and the rest of it is just stuff.”

Fire crews from Riverside and Wellman assisted in extinguishing the fire.

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