Twenty thousand chickens have died after a shed fire on Wednesday, with more than 30 fire volunteers responding to the blaze.
Nar Nar Goon fire brigade captain Justin Seddon, along with 16 CFA units and Fire Rescue Victoria, responded to the shed fire on Bald Hill Road, Nar Nar Goon, at 6am on Wednesday, April 17.
The shed was about 30 by 300 metres in size, with the fire under control by 6.20am and deemed safe in the afternoon at about 5.20pm.
The responding units included Nar Nar Goon, Pakenham, Koo Wee Rup, Toomuc, Bayles, Yellingbo, Pakenham, Scoresby, Cardina, Casey, Maryknoll and Tynong.
The relevant power company, Victoria Police and Ambulance Victoria were also called to the scene, and the incident is not suspicious.
Mr Seddon said they believed the early fire warning systems at the farm failed to activate, along with the shed's temperature monitoring systems.
"Upon our arrival we found the shed had been burning for some time, there was only a couple of small pockets of fire," he said.
"The fire wasn't putting up a great deal of smoke, we started to get in a bit closer and we could see it had burnt for some time and a large amount of chickens were deceased."
He said they contacted Agriculture Victoria and the Environment Protection Authority for assistance with the live chickens, about 30, and water runoff.
The brigades used about 170,000 litres of water to control the fire from a nearby primary school and make the property safe.
"There were no fire hydrants in that area so we had to get water from the local primary school, from their fire tanks," Mr Seddon said.
He said the hose was about 1.6 kilometres in total.
"It was really unfortunate, we feel for the owners and the managers who work onsite, they were extremely distraught," Mr Seddon said.
"The priority was to get water and electricity to the remaining sheds so the owners were working with electricians and plumbers to get them under control and monitor the other 45,000 chickens that are there.
"Every CFA volunteer that was there, it was quite a difficult day because we've all got pets of some sort and a lot of us live on farms."
Rachel Simmonds
Rachel is an agricultural journalist for Australian Community Media's Stock & Land. She covers all aspects of Victoria's farming community and industry. To get in contact, email rachel.simmonds@stockandland.com.au
Rachel is an agricultural journalist for Australian Community Media's Stock & Land. She covers all aspects of Victoria's farming community and industry. To get in contact, email rachel.simmonds@stockandland.com.au
