On Friday, December the 27th, 2019 in Otsego, Michigan a massive fire broke out at a barn housing 300,000 chickens and the destruction that was left was devastating.
The poultry farm was about 25 miles from Kalamazoo and when the authorities got notified around 11am of the fire, multiple fire departments arrived on the scene to do their best to extinguish the fire.
“Firefighters have been working very fast and effectively to contain this fire and make sure the loss is minimalized,” Brian Burch, a KONOS Farms spokesman told WWMT News.
Unfortunately, the fire killed all 300,000 chickens in that barn, however, all 50 people who worked at the farm were able to escape with no injuries except for minor smoke inhalation.
WWMT News reported that smoke could be seen from the Bittersweet Ski Resort which is located about six miles from the farm. Nearby cities, Augusta and Battle Creek said they could actually smell the smoke being carried by the wind.
Smell any smoke?
Radar scans from earlier today revealed a small blip to the northwest of Otsego. This was actually caused by the large fire at the Vande Bunte poulty farm. Light northwest winds likely carried some of that smoke southeast, which is likely why some smelled smoke. pic.twitter.com/0KzvUma7wI
— Meteorologist Will Haenni WWMT (@WillWWMT) January 3, 2020
“Agriculture fires are always a challenge, especially at a place like this. We don’t have city water, we don’t have those same kinds of assets that we sometimes take for granted in cities,” Burch told WWMT News.
The good news is they were able to stop the fire from reaching another one of the barns that housed around 250,000 hens. However, they are still unsure of how the fire got started at the other barn in the first place.
The company normally produced around 550,000 eggs per year but with the tragic fire, that number will be reduced significantly. Even so, they still plan to sell the eggs for the same price and not raise the cost.