Thousands of Hens Burn in North Carolina Fire
Source Times-News, Burlington, N.C.
Jan. 03--ELI WHITNEY -- A New Year's Day fire destroyed a henhouse and killed thousands of chickens at a farm in southern Alamance County.
The cause of the fire -- which raged at a farm at 2815 E. Greensboro-Chapel Hill Road into the evening Sunday and caused $160,000 in damage -- is still under investigation,
For all that, the toll could have been much worse without the work of nine Alamance County fire departments, the county's sheriff's department and EMS and its emergency dispatchers, Alamance County Fire Marshal David Leonard said Monday. Crews saved more than $600,000 of equipment and livestock there.
The fire inside one of three henhouses at the farm was reported just after 4 p.m. Sunday. The flames destroyed that henhouse and damaged one other henhouse, about 100 feet away. Nearly 6,000 chickens inside were killed.
The farm is owned by Jeff Lamm, who is under contract with GCB Foods of Nashville, N.C. Bob Pike, owner of GCB Foods, said Monday that another 15,000 chickens were saved by the work of fire departments and their support.
"They did an excellent job," Pike said.
No one was injured in the fire.
The fire was under control by 6:30 p.m. Sunday, but Greensboro Chapel Hill Road remained closed to traffic near N.C. 87 until after 9 p.m. as crews continued to cool hotspots and investigate the fire.
Eli Whitney Fire Department was the primary department. Trucks and crews from Snow Camp, Swepsonville, Silk Hope, White Cross, E.M. Holt, Haw River, Elon and Faucette departments assisted in the containment and knockdown of the fire.
A number of fires, including a brushfire in Swepsonville and a fire inside an unoccupied mobile home in the Sandy Cross area, and medical emergencies kept crews and dispatchers extremely busy Sunday night, Leonard said.
The amount of calls meant departments around the county had to cover and fill in for each other.
"Our central communications center was extremely busy notifying ... mutual aid for each of the events. Each incident commander handled their perspective incident in a timely and efficient manner," Leonard said. "I want to say thanks to each emergency response agency within Alamance County and our county mutual aid partners."
