No one was injured when multiple agencies responded to a structure fire on a farm south of Beardstown overnight.
Brian Becker, Chief of the Beardstown Fire and Ambulance Service says at 9:46 pm Monday night, Beardstown Fire Department was dispatched to a structure fire at a hog containment building at Win Productions LLC on Pilger Lane in rural Cass County.
Becker says the structure was fully involved by fire when the department arrived. A mutual aid call was sent to both the Arenzville and Meredosia Fire Departments to assist in containing the blaze to only the one building and not spread to other structures throughout the farm.
Becker estimates the structure was over 20 feet wide and approximately the length of a football field. He says the fire likely would have spread if it were not for the mutual aid assistance from the other departments.
“If it was not for the coordinated attack with our other agencies, it would have been a lot worse. I feel fortunate in the fact that our guys were able to work well with the other agencies and we were able to get the water shuttled back and forth because, this being a rural fire there are no hydrants out there in that location so all of our water had to be brought in by tanker and shuttled in.”
Becker says he is unsure how many pigs were in the confinement at the time of the fire, and that those animals that did survive will very likely need to be euthanized. He says they were able to keep the fire from the piglet barn close by, however he does not know if any would need to be euthanized due to smoke inhalation or other related secondary issues caused by the fire.
The last of the fire crews cleared the scene at 1:35 am, and Becker says after returning, the fire department was cleaned and ready for service by 3:00 am.
Becker says he feels very fortunate to have multiple agencies in the area that work so well together.
“I’m very grateful for our mutual aid people. Everybody comes together when we have an emergency like this, and if it wasn’t for goodhearted individuals wanting to band together and go help somebody in a time of tragedy, I would be very scared for this world, more so than I already am, so they were fantastic.”
He says a cause of the fire has not yet been determined at this time, however he does not suspect any criminal actions caused the blaze.
Beardstown Ambulance Service, The Beardstown Police Department and Cass County Sheriff’s Department were also on scene to assist.