OTLEY, Iowa –The Marion County town of Otley is again under a voluntary shelter-in-place, or evacuation due to heavy smoke from a fire at Two Rivers Cooperative.

A statement released on Tuesday morning by the Marion County Emergency Management office reads:

“Sulfur in the smoke it will cause irritation to nose and eyes and want people to stay clear as the wind blows it around. The evacuation order is for Washington Street to Baldwin Street between Highway 163 to Business 163 in Otley.”

Old 163 through the heart of town was closed to vehicle traffic.

“There is no mandatory side of it, but we just want people to be aware,” said Marion County Sheriff Jason Sandholdt. “It’s cold enough today that luckily most people have their window shut and doors closed, with that sulfur it can be an irritant for the eyes, throats different things along those lines.”

At Two Rivers Co-op they have not been able to find a cause of the fire, but believe it started in the elevator leg over the complex.

“It was just dry fertilizer. There were no chemicals in this building. All of our chemicals are stored in a different, different place so just dry fertilizer,” said Brian Zahnle, General Manager of Two Rivers Cooperative. “There’s no explosion. It was just a fire.”

Zahnle said he really appreciated how everyone came together to battle the fire.

“Working with the Marion County Emergency services people, as well as the DNR folks, we don’t want any water to get contaminated and then, then get downstream,” said Zahnle. “I mean that’s the reason for the smoke and it’s still burning yet today.”

The decision was to let the smoldering rubble burn out, and not put huge amounts of water on the site, as that could impact the local ground water supply. 

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