Published: July 02, 2008 11:09 pm      

Fire destroys building at area turkey farm

An early Wednesday morning Greenbrier County blaze at one of the world’s largest turkey breeding farms destroyed a building with a large number of turkeys and eggs, officials said.

Ronceverte Fire Chief Jody Campbell said when firefighters responded to the scene about 2 a.m., the facility was already “engulfed by fire.” The facility, owned by Huntsville, Alabama-based Aviagen Turkeys, was located on Hokes Mill Road in Organ Cave.

“The building is a total loss,” Campbell said. “There were four buildings in all on this site, but we were able to contain the fire to just this one building.”

Campbell said Fairlea and Union fire departments also responded to the scene, which was not cleared until about 6 a.m. There were no human injuries associated with the fire, he said. Valves on large propane tanks were quickly shut off, Campbell said, and the power company responded by cutting electricity to the building.

“When my assistant chief and I walked around the area to assess the fire, all the turkeys in the barn had already burned to death,” Campbell said. “There was a flash fire in an area of the building about 40 to 50 feet long.”

Aviagen officials said the 10,000 square-foot building — which is 200 feet by 50 feet — contained “an unknown amount of turkey eggs that were also destroyed by the fire. A damage estimate was not available Wednesday.

“There are four buildings and one of them was completely destroyed and the other three look to be in good shape,” Sandi Hofmann, Aviagen Turkey’s director of marketing and administration, said.

She added that the building included a 20-foot wide toms’ barn.

“We are making sure that that all of the birds lost will be disposed of properly and we are working with landfill officials.”

Hofmann also called the structure a total loss, but would not speculate as to the fire’s origin. She said none of the farm’s 11 employees was working there at the time of the fire. The company employees about 165 at a total of 22 separate sites in the county.

“This is a big loss, but we are very happy that no employees were injured and we appreciate the efforts of the fire departments in not allowing the fire to spread to other buildings,” Hofmann said. “We would also like to thank the many people who stopped by to help.”

Hofmann said “all of the turkeys in the United States” used for consumption are “primarily” bred at their Greenbrier County facilities.

According to Aviagen’s Web site aviagen.com, Aviagen Turkeys is the world leader in poultry breeding. Aviagen recently bought British United Turkeys which previously bred turkeys at the same Greenbrier County facilities. Aviagen’s other large turkey breeding facilities are located in Chester, Great Britain. Aviagen is also known for breeding chickens.

A 2005 Register-Herald story said officials estimated there were over 90,000 turkeys spread across the 22 sites. Since then, an additional hatchery was been built. The county was originally selected because of the lack of any large poultry farms in the area “which may spread airborne respiratory diseases.”

— E-mail: cgiggenbach@register-herald.com