The Pella Rural Fire Department fought flames at a home in the Timber Ridge neighborhood southwest of Pella Saturday evening.

Emergency crews responded at 8:40 p.m. to the house at 104 Timber Ridge Drive. Pella Fire Captain Randy Bogaard tells KNIA/KRLS News the homeowner was raking up trash from the fall and winter to burn, but set the fire too close to the house.

“She thought she had it handled, but the smoke detectors inside the house indicated she had a problem,” he says. “She came out to find out that she had fire going up the wall.”

Bogaard says the department had to do a small amount of demolition at the back of the house to help knock down flames, and some of the fire did get inside. He believes the homeowner was lucky she was home, or it may have been a much more devastating result.

Bogaard encourages all who plan to burn vegetation in the next few weeks to do so at a safe distance from their home, and to call their respective police dispatch office to report the controlled burn.

“Don’t try to do it where it’s laying, like [this homeowner] was doing, because it obviously travels faster and farther than you think.”

Nobody was injured. Pella Ambulance, Pella Police, and the Marion County Sheriff’s Office assisted with the call.