By SCOTT MacLEOD
TAURANGA - Twenty-five thousand chickens were killed yesterday in a blaze at a poultry shed.
The lethal inferno has sparked calls for poultry farmers to look more carefully at their fire precautions.
The swift blaze started before dawn at the chicken farm, on Matapihi Rd in Mt Maunganui, and had
almost gutted a 120m-long shed packed with chickens by the time firefighters arrived.
Senior Station Officer Philip Price said that he and the other firefighters could see the inferno from Tauranga when they received a call at 4.30 am.
The battery-hen building was ablaze from end to end when they arrived with Mt Maunganui firefighters, and the five fire trucks and 30 crew could do little. "The chooks were dead and the roof collapsing," he said. "But we managed to save a workshop."
The Tauranga chief fire officer, Ron Devlin, said the loss was greater than it might otherwise have been because the chickens were held in one long building. It contained one large space, with no separations or partitions.
An effective alarm or sprinkler system might have saved some of the chickens, Mr Devlin said. "I'm not criticising the owners, but people in the community must recognise what they value and do something to protect it. It's a bloody shame to see such a loss - there will be such an impact on the owners and the local community."
The cause of the blaze was yet to be pinpointed but one theory centred on faulty electrical gear.
