A farmer in Mechanicsville, Iowa suffers from their 3rd wind turbine fire in less than 18 months.

In less than a year and a half, this farmer is left with another huge mess that needs to be cleaned. This fire all began with an unlucky lightning strike that could cost this farmer millions of dollars.

*This is a stock wind turbine photo and not the wind turbine in this story*

Cleanup and Damage Could Cost Millions

According to KCRG, there is an ordinance in Cedar County that requires wind turbines to be taken down within a year if they are no longer producing energy. The owners of this turbine that caught fire have completed that part but the damage left behind is up to the landowner to take care of.

The turbine that caught fire had a blade fall to the ground which caused a ton of debris to be scattered throughout the area where the turbine sits.

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Sally Freeman is the owner of the farm where the windmill caught fire and she spoke to KCRG about the damage. She's not exactly sure how they'll completely clean it up and what they're supposed to do with it.

"I don’t really know how you ever clean it up, especially since the longer you wait the harder it is to clean up. And since there’s so much still here I don’t know what we’re gonna do with it. So between additional costs to us... additional costs to and damages to our soil, I would say it’s in the millions. 

Because of the storms that followed the fire and the fact that there’s now been two fires on the same turbine, three fires in the same field, I mean there’s probably at least 1000 acres that have been affected by these two turbines."

Not only does Sally need to worry about the pieces of fiberglass potentially damaging her (expensive) farm equipment, she also knows that she won't be able to sell any of the corn from the areas affected by the turbine/fire.

The blade that fell was still smoldering days after the initial fire. Sally did also mention not being against wind energy but she's hopeful that some type of legislation can be passed that will speed up the turbine cleanup process.