PENNOCK -- A barn with more than 40,000 young turkeys in it was destroyed in a fire Saturday.
All the turkeys, which were a couple of days old, were killed.
The barn, located two miles west of Willmar on U.S. Highway 12, was owned by the Willmar Poultry Company. It was a total loss, according to Jeff Arends, assistant fire chief with the Pennock Fire Department.
The pole-barn building was fully engulfed by the time firefighters arrived, at about 12:30 p.m. "Once it started, it went fast," said Arends. The black smoke from the fire could be seen for miles. Traffic was re-routed off of Highway 12 for a time and the electric power cooperative was called to shut off power to the facility.
Fire crews from four departments -- Pennock, Willmar, Kerkhoven and Raymond -- were on the scene for about 2½ hours. The Pennock Fire Department was called back around 6:45 to put out some hot spots that had flared up.
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Arends said it's likely the fire started when a heater in the barn failed. Because the turkeys were young and needed to be kept warm, the heaters would have been running. The floor of the turkey barn had dry wood shavings as bedding for the young turkeys, giving the fire plenty of fuel.
Arends said there was not much of the building to save by the time crews arrived. They were able to prevent fire damage to nearby diesel tanks and another turkey barn that was also full of young poults. Arends said the wind was in a "good direction" and helped prevent the fire from spreading further.
