Fire Destroys Orange City Aluminum Wheel Manufacturing Company

(Orange City) — Eight different fire departments offered mutual aid to battle a structure fire for more than four hours last evening at a wheel manufacturing plant located near Orange City. The fire was first reported at approximately 9:30 p.m. at the Keizer Aluminum Wheels Company located at 3981
Jackson Avenue, or about four miles north of Orange City, near the intersection of county roads L-64 and B-40. Orange City Fire Chief Denny Vander Wel says the fire was reported by someone passing by the facility.

Vander Wel says the fire started within the northwest corner of the building destroying the building and its manufacturing contents.

The fire caused the roof to collapse. The Orange City fire chief says he isn’t certain what may be the cause of the fire, but he estimates the total damage to be around four million dollars. He says many of the tankers from neighboring fire
departments made at least ten trips shuttering water. He says perhaps as much as 50,000 gallons of water was used to help extinguish the blaze.

An excavator was brought in to the scene to help remove some of the debris to allow firefighters to have better access to some of the hot spots. Assisting at the scene were the Orange City Fire Department, along with fire departments from Alton, Boyden, Hull, Hospers, Maurice, and Sioux Center. Le Mars fire department was called on to offer mutual aid. Sioux County Sheriff’s Office, Orange City/Alton Police, and North West Rural Electric Cooperative also responded to the scene.  Keizer Aluminum Wheel Company manufactures high performance aluminum based wheels used for race cars.