HOG BARN FIRES an Epidemic?

[Oscar]

7,000 Pigs Perish in Manitoba Barn Fire

http://news.aol.ca/article/7000-Pigs-Pe ... re/185666/

Source: CBC News Posted: 04/04/08 9:01AM

A Manitoba Hutterite colony lost its main source of income after a fire killed an estimated 7,000 pigs Wednesday.

RCMP said the hogs and sows were destroyed after the barn caught fire on the Netley Hutterite colony, about 70 kilometres north of Winnipeg, on Wednesday afternoon.

RCMP originally pegged the loss at 12,000 pigs, but the colony now says the figure was closer to 7,000. The colony estimates the cost of the hog fire at $3 million.

Colony resident Tom Hofer witnessed the fire.

"It was the biggest income we had," he said. "You don't recover from something like that. It's too big a loss."

RCMP said two men were taken to hospital with minor injuries. One suffered smoke inhalation, while the other injured his hands while breaking a window in the kilometre-long barn.

Kim Henderson, deputy chief of the nearby Clandeboye Fire Department, said half of the massive building was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived.

Thick smoke likely killed the animals before they were burned by the fire, he said.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation. No damage estimate has been made available.

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Hot light sparked blaze in hog barn, says fire commissioner

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story ... -fire.html

Last Updated: Monday, April 7, 2008 | 1:09 PM CT

An overheated light fixture was the source of a fire that killed thousands of pigs on a Hutterite colony north of Winnipeg last week.

The Fire Commissioner's Office of Manitoba, which pinpointed the cause of a barn fire, said all but 10 of just over 8,000 hogs and sows died.

The damage estimate was increased to $6.5 million as a result of the blaze, which broke out last Wednesday afternoon in the kilometre-long barn.

There was concern the Hutterites would be unable to rebuild their operation under the province's new moratorium on expanding hog-production, but the colony told CBC News it has learned it can rebuild an existing operation.

The barn opened in 1994.

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Hog barn fire in the RM of La Broquerie

http://www.mysteinbach.ca/newscentre/rcmp/id=0161.html

RM of La Broquerie, Man. May 29, 2008

At 3:26 a.m. on May 29, 2008, Steinbach RCMP received a report of a hog barn fire at the Silverado Barns situated approximately seven kilometers south of Sarto, Manitoba on Highway #12 in the Rural Municipality of La Broquerie.

The fire was noticed by a passerby who notified the owners. Four local area Fire Departments attended the fire. Information to date is that one of the barn was saved and two others burned as a result of the fire.

RCMP Steinbach Detachment with the assistance of the Manitoba Office of the Fire Commissioner are on scene investigating. Damage estimates are not known at this time and the number of hogs who perished have not been finalized.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Contact:
Sgt. Line Karpish
(204)983-8497

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Sent for publishing on May 31, 2008

Manitoba's Live Pig Roasts

Re: Fire destroys two hog barns near Steinbach, May 29.

It seems to be open season on pigs in Manitoba's mega-barns. Many people I know suspect the spate of hog bonfires is more convenient than accidental. But you don't have to be a cynic to ask why our province has a farm building regulatory system that fails to prevent this recurring nightmare of live pig roasts. Where are the compulsory, routinely inspected automatic sprinkler systems, firewalls between connected barn buildings, remote smoke and fire alarms, rapid emergency evacuation plans and whatever else it would take to protect the millions of farm animals whose welfare is our collective responsibility?

Ironically, the small, straw-bedded pig barns we usually think of as fire-traps don't seem to be going up in flames. Unlike the sealed hog factories often left unattended by offsite owners, these eco-friendly and animal-friendly structures typically have an open-door relationship with the family farm barnyard or pasture around them. If fire strikes, the pigs don't have to die trapped inside, terrified and screaming. They just high-tail it out of there.

Factory farming itself is a burning barn. We should high-tail it out of there.

Syd Baumel
Winnipeg

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Fire kills 7,000 hogs in Manitoba

http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/449225

Jun 25, 2008 02:22 PM The Canadian Press

STEINBACH, Man. – A huge hog operation in southern Manitoba has gone up in flames, killing thousands of animals.

About 7,000 hogs perished in the fire at a Maple Leaf-owned plant south of Steinbach. Al Nadeau, the area's fire chief, said crews responded to the site around 3:30 a.m., but the barn was already fully engulfed in flames.

Large, thick plumes of smoke could be seen rising into the air as fire crews worked to extinguish the burning hog barn.

This is the second such fire in the province in roughly a month. A recent fire at a nearby Hytek plant destroyed a hog operation and killed 5,200 animals.

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Barn fire kills 7,000 hogs

http://winnipeg.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local ... arn_080625

Updated: Wed Jun. 25 2008 18:04:01 ctvwinnipeg.ca

As many as 7,000 hogs have died in a barn fire this morning. The barn is at the Maple Leaf Agra farm just east of Zhoda in the RM of La Broquerie.

There are reports as many as 7,000 hogs perished in the blaze.

"Unfortunately we lost the whole barn including the inventory to the barn," Richard Bergmann of Maple Leaf Agra told CTV News.

RCMP say a man making a delivery in the area spotted the fire and called 911.

The La Broquerie Fire Department is on scene fighting the fire, which started at around 3:30 a.m.

RCMP say the cause of the fire unknown at this time.

This is the second major hog barn fire in Manitoba this month. A fire about a month ago at a Hytek plant nearby destroyed a hog operation and killed 5,200 hogs.

Fire destroyed 73 animal barn operations in Manitoba last year, most were caused by electrical or mechanical failures.

Manitoba's Fire Commissioner said there are currently no building codes on farm operations.

"We need to take a look at requirements and particularly the types of farm buildings we see now," said Doug Popowich. "These are no longer the family farm-type of operations, these are large almost factories, large number of animals, so we need to take a look at some type of building requirement for these farms."

Popowich said that in the past, farms were exempt from building codes because most were family run operations, but over the years the face of farming has changed, so he said it's time the regulations were, too.

With a report from CTV's Caroline Barghout.

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Hog barn blaze the last straw

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/ ... 2313c.html

By: Lindsey Wiebe Updated: June 26 at 12:35 AM CDT

Manitoba's fire commissioner says the province will finally move ahead with plans to develop farm building safety codes, on the heels of a hog barn blaze that killed 6,500 pigs in the Rural Municipality of La Broquerie Wednesday.

"There's now finally an agreement by all parties involved that we do need to have something ... some type of building regulation," said provincial fire commissioner Doug Popowich.

Animal advocates have long called for building codes to apply to farm buildings, most of which are not required to have safety measures like sprinklers or smoke detectors. The province has discussed changing the rules in the past, but never went forward with plans.

Wednesday's fire at the Maple Leaf Agri-Farms Seine River sow operation was the third hog barn blaze this year, killing about 3,000 sows and 3,500 piglets, said Maple Leaf spokeswoman Jeanette Jones.

She said the barn had a digital alarm to monitor temperature changes, which went off at around 3:30 a.m. The barn manager got to the scene half an hour later, around the time a passing feed-truck driver called 911.

"By the time the barn manager did arrive on-site, it was very well entrenched and the barn was engulfed in flames," Jones said.

The barn was located roughly eight kilometres east of the community of Zhoda, south of Steinbach.

By mid-afternoon, fire crews from La Broquerie and Vita had the blaze under control, said La Broquerie fire chief Alain Nadeau, who described the barn as "a total loss."

Jones could not say whether there were sprinklers in the barn. She said no injuries were reported and no employees were on-site at the time of the fire.

The cause has yet to be determined.

The year is less than half over, but 2008 already has the highest number of livestock fatalities from hog barn fires in recent years. Nearly 28,000 hogs died in three barn fires this year, compared with 3,700 hogs last year.

The Maple Leaf barn fire is the second in less than a month in the R.M. of La Broquerie. A fire at the end of May destroyed two barns at the Hytek-owned Silverado Barns, seven kilometres south of Sarto, killing thousands of hogs and in April, roughly 8,700 pigs died in a fire at the Netley Hutterite Colony.

Popowich said the lack of a building code for barns goes back to the 1970s, when the definition of a farm building was based on smaller family farms.

"These are now industries," he said. "They're no longer the typical family farm building."

Popowich said he expects consultations to start in the coming months. "The whole process will take a year, by the time it's put together," he said.

Former Winnipeg Humane Society executive director Vicki Burns said advocates have been pushing for farm building codes for at least six years.

"It's way past the time that we should really be requiring some kind of fire code for these large barns," she said.

lindsey.wiebe@freepress.mb.ca

[Oscar]

Barn safety overdue

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/editor ... 2805c.html

Updated: June 27 at 07:09 AM CDT

It is unfortunate that it has taken a series of hog barn fires to wake up Manitoba to the risks posed by farm buildings, which have evolved in the past 40 years from relatively small out-buildings to major factories. Following a blaze Wednesday in the RM of La Broquerie that killed 6,500 pigs, the province announced that it intends to move ahead with plans to develop building codes regulating the construction of farm buildings.

The problem is there was industry-wide agreement about 10 years ago that the province should improve the minimum safety standards provided by the National Fire Code. In the absence of provincial regulations, insurance companies have themselves insisted on certain standards, while engineers have also attempted to ensure new buildings were designed with fire safety in mind, partly to protect themselves in court in the event of a major calamity. Manitoba Hydro also inspects major farm buildings for defects and risks, but there is a limit to its ability to identify problems and issue orders for improvement.

Fires will happen, but they seem to be erupting at an unacceptable rate in Manitoba. Wednesday's blaze was the third major hog barn disaster this year. Some 28,000 hogs have died so far in 2008, while 3,700 perished last year. There are an estimated 1,700 hog barns in Manitoba, but the number soars if other operations, including chickens, turkeys, cattle and horses, are considered. In other words, thousands of significant agricultural structures have been built without any significant provincial standards whatsoever.

No one has died in any of the hog barn fires, which is fortunate, but not an excuse to neglect safety. Furthermore, the destruction by fire of thousands of animals is not only offensive in itself, it represents a significant loss to producers, insurance companies and municipalities. For all these reasons, it is incomprehensible why the province has not moved sooner to address the issue.

Fires cannot be eliminated completely, but animal barns present unique challenges that must be met. Among other things, they can be very damp environments, which should require special codes for wiring and electrical systems. Overheated light fixtures, for example, have been blamed for some fires in the past.

Hog and livestock producers have recognized the need for safety standards -- after all, they have an investment in the safety of their animals -- but they are not experts in the field. For that, they rely on the province. Even if everyone cannot agree on the role of government in society, most of us recognize that public safety at least is one of those responsibilities.

The provincial Fire Commissioner's Office, the agency responsible for fire codes, says it anticipates that new rules will be ready in about a year. Better late than never, but it should not have taken this long to do the obvious and ensure minimum safety standards for people, animals and property.

[Oscar]

Horrified by hog-barn fires

HAVE YOUR SAY - Winnipeg Free Press -- June 28, 2008

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/editor ... 3339c.html

As a professor who teaches the history and literature of animal welfare, I am horrified by the number of hog-barn fires in our province.

How is it possible that the pork industry can permit barn after barn to go up in flames, roasting thousands and thousands of live pigs and repeatedly endangering the welfare of the firefighters called out to manage the carnage?

How is it possible that the electrical wiring and lighting of the barns are not inspected on a monthly basis?

Given the fact that keeping pigs caged in stalls permits the concentration of ammonia from their urine to corrode the wiring, why isn't this inspection a top priority?

Why are pigs locked in stalls in the first place? Trapped in the melting metal, they are unable to make a break for it at the first signs of smoke.

The pork industry has made it literally impossible for the pigs to run to safety -- and the number of deaths this year has increased ten times over the last year.

What is going on?

The image of the pigs' fear inside those burning barns is unbearable to contemplate.

Dana Medoro
University of Manitoba