At 1:17 a.m. on Saturday, the Marshalltown Fire and Police departments were called to the scene of a structure fire at an unoccupied house on North Center Street that spread to the neighboring property, The Depot convenience store, and resulted in both structures being declared total losses.

According to an officer on the scene early Saturday morning, at least 30 firefighters responded in total including volunteers from Toledo, Albion and Liscomb alongside the crews from the Marshalltown Fire Department (MFD). He also estimated that they ran 3,500 gallons of water a minute for four hours straight to contain the blaze.

The owners of The Depot were on scene removing items from the buildings and the attached apartments. Beacon records indicate that The Depot is owned by GHH LLC of Cedar Falls, while the neighboring home is owned by Emilio Alonso Ochoa.

Marshalltown Fire Chief Christopher Cross told the T-R that the cause of the fire is undetermined, and the fire most likely originated on the southeast corner of the front porch of the house, which was knocked down by Con-Struct through emergency demolition early Saturday morning because it was so unstable.