Ames is one fire station short following a Thursday night collapse of the building at Fire Station Number 2.  Two trucks remained under the debris Friday morning after an adjacent excavation caused the north wall of the station to collapse, according to city officials. (Tribune photo by Jim Mone)

At least one fireman was injured about 8:40 p.m. Thursday when a wall and the roof of Fire Station No. 2 near the Iowa State University campus here collapsed, burying three fire trucks and a fireman.  Fire Lt. Jim Hoffman was in satisfactory condition Thursday night at Mary Greeley Hospital with head injuries suffered when he was struck by falling bricks.  He was apparently the only fireman injured.

Police Dispatcher Roland Dippold said the north wall of the two-year-old station collapsed and the roof of the station then fell in, burying two pumper trucks and an aerial truck.  Authorities said the collapse may have been caused by excavations just north of the fire station for a new restaurant.  It is believed the excavation may have undermined the foundation of the fire station's north wall.

Authorities evacuated about 25 students from an apartment house on the other side of the excavation after the fire station collapsed.  The building, built at a cost of $125,000, was almost a total loss, said Ames Mayor Stuart Smith.  The trucks buried by debris were valued at $55,000 to $60,000 and were extensively damaged.  Two cranes were called in to pull the fire engine least damaged from the ruble, so that the campus area would have fire protection.  There is one other fire station in Ames in the downtown area.  (Des Moines Register's Iowa News Service)

The ladder truck with the firefighters from the Ames fire Department entering the burnt-out second story of Ames Stationers on the southeast corner of Main and Kellogg the morning after the late night fire of November 22, 1987.  The building was subsequently rebuilt as a one-story structure and reopened in 1988.