All that remains of the Matt and Mindy Bartell home is rubble. The April 1 fire was battled by the Green Mountain Fire Department, with mutual aid from six additional fire departments. Benefits are planned for the family.

By Margaret Thomsen

April 1, 2015 will be a day the Matt Bartel Family will remember for all their lives. A fire of unknown origin burned their farm home to the ground. The home is located north of Green Mountain just off of Wallace Avenue on 150th Street.

Matt and Mindy Bartel have three children at home, Bryce is a sophomore, Kenzie,6, is a kindergartner and Bryleigh, 5, is in preschool. They all attend GMG. Oldest daughter Kendra .

The family lost everything except the clothes they were wearing. In light of this benefits have been planned. On Sunday, April 12 a 1 PM luncheon featuring BBQ Pork and brats with a free will donation will be held at the Garwin Bull in Garwin. A raffle will also take place. One of the organizers, Carol Dvorak said, “This is done by Sandy Dreessen and friends of the family. When Garwin was hit by the storm in 2011, Matt and Bryce were in Garwin and helped so many people. It is just a small way to repay a kindness.”

The second benefit will be held Friday, April 17 in State Center at the Middle School Cafeteria. This event will be held from 4:30 to 7:30 PM and will feature a free will donation Spaghetti Supper. Local State Center businesses have donated items for a raffle. Sponsors of the supper are employees of the State Center Nursing Home, where Mindy serves as the Director of Nursing.

Three sites have been set up to receive donated items. Locations are the UPS Store on Merle Hibbs Boulevard in Marshalltown, the YMCA in Marshalltown and the Scott and Tesha Sederburg garage at 1668 Wallace Avenue.

Matt Bartel works nights at MMSC as an x-ray technician and was sleeping around 1:30 on Wednesday afternoon when he was suddenly awakened. He said, “It was the smell, the smoke alarms, the sounds, it just roared…… my firefighter’s training kicked in and I went out the window. I pulled myself out, hung and then dropped. It was sort of a controlled fall. There were some steps and it was a drop of several feet.”

According to Assistant Fire Chief John Worden of the Green Mountain Fire Department, “Winds of 30 to 40 miles per hour just tipped the scale. The field across the road was on fire and we were battling both at the same time.” He added “We had the assistance of Fire Departments from Gladbrook, Garwin, Le Grand, Albion, Beaman, Melbourne, The First Responders from Green Mountain, the REC, Red Cross, Marshall County Emergency Management and the Marshalltown Area Paramedic Service. Conrad would have been there but they were out on a call of their own.”

An emotional Warden went on to explain, “Matt is our friend and co-fireman, it was overwhelming to see him in his underwear with a plastic tarp wrapped around him trying to help fight the fire – it was all he had – .. Several pet dogs and a cat were lost in the fire, too.”

Matt said, “It is amazing to live in small town Iowa. The support has been amazing – we couldn’t ask for anything more…… We do have insurance and we will rebuild. And we are really pushing everybody to check and/or install smoke detectors.”

Mindy added, “Our hearts are full with the clothing and donations – we are almost overwhelmed. We thank everyone so much. The support system that came out of the woodwork in this community, it’s just an over-abundance.”