In the early morning hours on Thursday (January 21), a fire broke out at A&L Farms in Pennsylvania. According to WFMZ-TV, nearly 70,000 chickens were killed in the blaze.
This marks the third time a fire has broken out at the farm since 2015. A fire that burnt a barn in 2019 claimed the lives of 37,000 chickens.
This most recent fire was definitely the worst the farm has dealt with. A fire official told WFMZ-TV that three structures were affected. Two buildings burnt to the ground, while an egg house sustained partial damage.
The fire started around 2 AM and produced flames that “could be seen at least a mile away.”
70,000 chickens dead after fire at Upper Bern farm. @alireidtv is on scene with the latest details on #69News at Sunrise https://t.co/znVuQGuNoz
— WFMZ-TV 69News (@69News) January 21, 2021
PHOTOS: Chicken house fire in Upper Bern Township #Berks https://t.co/wGaOt88OKe
— WFMZ-TV 69News (@69News) January 21, 2021
Firefighters found it challenging to battle the blaze. It took them two hours to get most of the fire under control, but took them even longer to extinguish all of the hot spots.
Steven Kauffman, the first assistant chief of the Shartlesville Fire Company, said the reason why the firefighters struggled to fight the blaze is because they didn’t have an ideal water source to pull from.
“The pond we use was filled with sludge, we couldn’t get water out of the ponds, so we had to go to a secondary pond, that was full with sludge and halfway emptied, so we had a struggle getting water to the scene,” Kauffman said.
WFMZ-TV reports that a fire marshal is expected to investigate the cause of the fire. Authorities have not said what they believe the cause was.
Watch WFMZ-TV‘s recap of the chicken farm fire in the video below.