DARKE COUNTY — A massive barn fire at a Darke County poultry farm prompted at least 32 agencies from 6 counties in Ohio and Indiana to respond Tuesday morning.
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Firefighters were dispatched at 6:04 a.m. to the 60 block of Billman Road on initial reports of a barn fire, according to Darke County Sheriff’s Office dispatchers.
The fire broke out at New Madison Pullets and affected two buildings on the property, one of which has been considered a total loss.
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A 911 caller told dispatchers that the fire was near a manure barn connected to a chicken barn.
Video shown on News Center 7 at 6:00, showed how bad the smoke conditions were when firefighters got to the scene. One firefighter said they couldn’t see a truck that was three feet in front of them because of that smoke.
New Madison Deputy Fire Chief Tim Shahan said the smoke conditions made it difficult for crews this morning.
“Our responding crews had trouble seeing the scene there. So much volume of smoke,” Shahan said. “When they arrived, they had a little bit of difficulty making access to the barn just because visibility was so low.”
Fire officials on the scene could not confirm if there were any chickens inside at the time of the fire, or if any were affected by the flames, he did confirm no people were hurt.
As shown on News Center 7 at 5:00, Shahan said the fire caused such a large response from neighboring agencies because there were no fire hydrants there to help carry water to the fire.
“Anytime we’re operating in a rural environment, we’re bringing our water with us,” Shahan said. “Obviously, there’s not hydrants in this area, so we rely on our water tankers to provide water to us.”
We’ll continue to provide updates as we learn more.
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