At least 240,000 chickens were killed early Thursday when a fire swept through two densely packed barns in Florida owned by one of the nation’s largest distributors of shell eggs, the authorities said. The farm is in a rural part of the county — about 40 miles northeast of Tampa — that does not have fire hydrants. “So we had to bring in tanker trucks,” Chief Whited said. The cause of the fire was under investigation by the state fire marshal, according to Chief Whited, who said that the financial loss had been estimated at $1 million. The farm — one of dozens of facilities that Cal-Maine Foods, based in Jackson, Miss., operates across the country — has four barns altogether.

Source: New York Times December 18, 2020 01:42 UTC