Bottle Rockets Caused Fire to Urbandale Deck: Fire Chief

Correction: Patch originally reported that the fire occurred at a neighbor's home in the 4900 block of 69th Street. 

 The parents of two Urbandale boys were cited for illegal fireworks on July 4 after the boys' bottle rockets allegedly started a fire at one of the boys' home.

Randy Peterson, Urbandale police information officer, said the fire started about 1 p.m. at a home at 4233 69th St.

Peterson said it was unclear how the fire started, although he said the call initially came in that the fire was under the deck of the home. A compost pile also was involved and eventually the home also was damaged.

He said a neighbor was able to reduce the damage somewhat because she ran over with her garden hose. "The neighbor was really mad," said Peterson, who was working a shift at Lions Park and did not have the names of the parents cited.

Lt. Rob Johansen said today that the parents who received the citations are Angela Francis, 42, of Urbandale and Michelle Heer, 46, of Urbandale.

It was Heer's deck that was burned, he said.

Fire Chief Jerry Holt said a bottle rocket landed in rubbish and leaves under the deck and that the initial call was that the fire was a pile of leaves. Before firefighters  had gotten there, the fire had burned the deck but neighbors had extinguished it by the time the fire trucks arrived.

Holt said firefighters estimated the damage at $2,200. "I don't think the whole deck burned up," he said.

Urbandale police have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to illegal fireworks, which is basically everything but sparklers and snakes. Peterson said that earlier this week, police had only received about five calls about illegal fireworks and had issued no citations, "which to me seems a little low."

He speculated that because it's been so hot, people may have their windows closed and are not hearing or being bothered by the sound of fireworks.