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Second hog confinement fire in two days
Posted: 04.24.2009 at 12:05 PM
5

Update on both Thursday and Friday's confinement fires

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LABELLE, Mo. - A fire at a second Tri-State hog swine confinement facility in two days killed about 100 hogs Friday morning.

Twenty-five firefighters with the Knox City and LaBelle Fire Protection Districts were called to a farm North of LaBelle around 7:30a.m.

When firefighters arrived, they found heavy smoke billowing out of the west side of the confinement.  Chief Harry Scifres with the LaBelle Fire Protection District told KHQA no one was hurt.

He says firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze within 30 minutes..

The confinement contained about 800 hogs. Scifres says between 60 to a hundred of them died during the blaze.

Asst. Chief Jerry MCKenzie said, "The actual structure collapse we had to deal with made it more difficult because we had tin down. It was hard to get inside to put the fire out when you have a building collapse."

Fire Chief Scifres says the State Fire Marshall has ruled the fire accidental, but investigators still aren't sure what exactly started it.   Firefighters on the scene say it appears to have started in the attic area.

Meanwhile an update on the fire near Littleton, Il that resulted in the death of about 2,000 sows. The cleanup continued Friday and is expected to last through the weekend at a hog confinement facility that was destroyed by fire Wednesday night.

We spoke with Dr. Bill Hollis, a veterinarian on staff at the site.  He said he couldn't provide an accurate number of piglets that were also lost in the blaze.

Hollis said the cleanup consists of the dead animals being placed in plastic containers and then being taken to a local landfill.

He said there is no rendering or burying of the animals at the site.

He also said the state fire marshall was at the scene and is still trying to determine a cause to the fire.

And he added that all employees of the hog farm will keep their jobs.

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