RUNNELLS, IOWA — Early Tuesday afternoon first responders got a call from a neighbor of a rural home in the 4600 block of SE 76th Street in Runnells.

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office tells WHO 13 News that the home was unoccupied, no one has been living in it and there were no injuries reported. The cause of the fire was clear to the first responders when they arrived.

“What we know is that it was a space heater. That is what their preliminary investigations are saying started this fire, like I said, it was an unoccupied structure,” said Lt. Shane Grego with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. “They had done some renovations to it, had moved out, were in the process of tearing it down and owners just didn’t want the pipes to freeze before they got that all done.”

The total extent of damage to the property is not known at this time. Grego said that there was a firefighter on scene who had a medical incident while on the property assisting in the response, the condition of the individual is unknown. Recent weather conditions added to the challenge of fighting the flames.

“Just getting water out to it, making sure they have enough water refill in the tanks, dropping the water off then going back out to refill them again,” said Grego. “With the rain from the last couple of days and the moisture and everything, it just made the ground really soft and some of the fire trucks got stuck, MidAmerican and I think some of the utility trucks would up getting stuck in the field also.”

A tractor and a tow truck were on the active scene helping fire trucks get out of the mud to go refill water tanks. Grego reminded people to be careful with space heaters and advised people to make sure heaters are never by any flammable objects.