Fire officials said Sunday that they are investigating the cause of a fire at a large egg farm in Connecticut that burned for hours and killed a number of chickens.
The fire at Hillandale Farms in Bozrah was reported around 1 p.m. Saturday and drew dozens of firefighters from the surrounding area. The fire was put out Saturday night, according to officials. The reason was not immediately apparent.
The building that caught fire, according to John Way, a safety officer for the Bozrah Volunteer Fire Co., was large — about 300 to 400 feet long and two stories high — and housed an unknown number of chickens.
Way said on Sunday that he couldn’t confirm local media reports citing The Salvation Army that 100,000 chickens had been slaughtered.
On Sunday, no one answered the phone at the farm. Hillandale Farms representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Hillandale Farms bills itself on its website as one of the country’s top egg producers, raising over 20 million chickens for eggs. Its headquarters are in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.