Fire completely levelled a two-storey chicken barn on the Third Line of Mapleton Township Thursday morning. Damage was pegged at $250,000.
Woolwich firefighters arriving on the scene found the empty building completely engulfed in flames. At that point, the job was to keep the fire away from other nearby buildings, said township fire chief Dale Martin.
No one was injured and no animals were harmed in the blaze.
“The barn was empty. The birds were coming tomorrow – 18,000 of the them.”
Though the cause of the fire remains under investigation, natural gas heaters were being used to warm the barn ahead of the delivery of a new batch of chicks, he said. A wood building filled with dry wood shavings provided “ripe” conditions for the fire to spread quickly.
Firefighters from Floradale, Elmira, St. Jacobs and Conestogo responded to the call, along with some tankers from Mapleton Township. Woolwich has an agreement to service that part of the neighbouring municipality.
While firefighters will look for the cause – “we know where it started” – the fire has been deemed not suspicious.
