CROTON – As smoke wafted from the rafters of a Trillium Farms pullet barn, around three hours after it began, David Miller sipped black coffee from a styrofoam cup. He stood facing the wreckage from Croton Road, just two miles south of Hartford in Licking County, and despondently summed up the afternoon.
“It’s a complete loss,” said Miller, the Central Ohio Joint Fire District captain, who also serves as the chief of the Hartford Volunteer Fire Department.
Both departments were on the scene on Friday, along with 19 others, which came from at least four different counties – Licking, Knox, Delaware and Franklin.
By the time the collective group of firefighters began shutting down the scene, Miller was still not sure what had caused the fire. Trillium Farms did not specify the cause in a press release it issued to several local media outlets, including the Columbus Dispatch and the Newark Advocate.
What was certain was that the entire barn was ravaged, and that a flock of hens had fallen victim to the blaze. Miller said there were workers in the barn at the time of the fire as well, although none were harmed. He could not confirm how many workers were in the barn.
“We are deeply grateful that all of our team members are accounted for, and that no one was hurt in the fire,” Trillium Farms told the Advocate.
“However, the barn did house a flock of hens, and we understand from firefighters that the barn likely is a total loss. This is a terrible situation, and we are devastated the flock could not be saved.”
Trillium Farms is one of the nation’s leading egg producers, according to the company’s website. It is centrally located in Croton, with additional locations in Larue, Marseilles and Mount Victory. The company was established in 2011.
The farm produces pullets, cage free pullets, egg-layers, and cage free layers, its website says. It process both shell eggs and liquid egg on-site. Trillium Farms employs nearly 500 people across its four sites.
Local fire departments were dispatched to the scene around 1:30 p.m., Miller said. Upon arriving, they found dark smoke billowing from the barn, which was one of several on the property. All of the barns housed pullets, which are young hens, usually less than one year old and not yet laying eggs.
Firefighters soon found flames coming from the back of the barn, Miller said. They then hosed water onto the barn from both sides, using two ladders to spray on top of the barn and slow the inferno. By shutting the vents in neighboring barns, firefighters were ultimately able to prevent the fire from spreading across the property.
“Everyone did fine. They did what they were supposed to do,” Miller said. “We had to shut (the other barns) down, mainly to keep the vents from sucking hot embers up into the other barns.”
Neither Miller nor Trillium Farms could confirm how many chickens perished on Friday afternoon. According to the Dispatch, the ravaged barn was 50 feet wide and 350 long, containing chickens, wooden cages and metal frames.
By the time the fire had run its course, the metal barn was melted and mangled around the edges. Smoke still streamed from the blackened structure, sending a burnt scent across the expanse of flat farmland that surrounds property.
Miller said that after clearing the scene, the Licking County fire investigator will search the property to try to find the cause of the fire.
Miller wasn’t sure how many times Hartford or COJFD had been called out to Trillium Farms for fires, although he said it wasn’t the first time.
“I’d have to look,” he said. “I know we’ve been called to the egg farm for fires before.”
