UPDATE: We now have some details from George Fire Chief Bill Sprock.
George, Iowa — Two 22-thousand square feet 570-by-40 foot poultry barns were destroyed in a fire on Wednesday, August 11, 2021, near George.
According to George Fire Chief Bill Sprock, about 12:45 p.m., the George Fire Department was called to the report of a turkey barn on fire at 260th Street and Jefferson Avenue, four miles south of the west side of George.
The chief says the fire department saw two fully-engulfed turkey buildings as they approached the scene and got to work extinguishing the fire.
Sprock says there were no birds in any of the buildings, and no injuries were reported.
Firefighters from Boyden, Matlock, Sheldon, Hull, Rock Rapids, Rock Valley, Little Rock, Doon, and Hospers were all called to the scene as well. He says most of them brought tankers of water, but they shuttled water from Lyon & Sioux Rural Water towers to the fire and ended up using over 100,000 gallons to put out the fire and protect the remaining building.
He says the cause of the fire appeared to be maintenance being done on the building with a grinder.
Chief Sprock reports that there was over half a million dollars in damage.
He says the firefighters who responded were on the scene for three and a half hours. According to Sprock, personnel from the George Emergency Medical Service provided rehab to the firefighters. Lyon and Sioux County deputies and the Iowa State Patrol provided traffic control.
Sprock wants to send out a big thank you to all the firefighters and others that came and helped. He says he heard the smoke was visible in Marcus, Iowa — over 30 miles away as the crow flies.
As far as the types of birds in the buildings, they used to house chickens, but at some point after the bird flu outbreak of 2015, the buildings were switched to house turkeys instead.
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Original story posted Tuesday, August 11th at 2:06 p.m.:
Rural George, Iowa — On Wednesday afternoon, firefighters from ten area fire departments fought a chicken confinement fire south of George on A52.
Lyon County Dispatch confirmed the fire.
Fire Departments from Boyden, George, Matlock, Sheldon, Hull, Rock Rapids, Rock Valley, Little Rock, Doon, and Hospers had been called to the scene, most of them for tankers of water to help extinguish the blaze.
There were three very large chicken barns on the property, and only one of them now remains.
We’ll have more information when it becomes available.
Thank you to Jay Hofland for this video of the fire. Pictures below by KIWA Staff.
