Emergency personnel fighting the fire off of Pleasant Grove Church Road grappled with both a ventilation system that fanned the flames and a tin roof that trapped the heat inside the structure.
Video:
"It's just a very complex situation, and we were doing all we could do, really working to our limits to try to get everything under control," said Brent Leggett with the Momeyer Fire Department.
There were also no fire hydrants around the building, forcing firefighters to use tankers to truck water from a nearby pond.
"These trucks hold anywhere from 1,000 to 1,800 gallons, and we've got them running just as hard as we can and just trying to keep the water supply to us," said Leggett.
Nine volunteer fire departments were at the scene of the four-alarm fire early Tuesday evening. Some of the firefighters had been there before.
"(I) heard all the fire trucks and sirens, and I turned around and looked and I told my help, 'Oh, we got another problem,'" said neighbor Don Bass. "Five years ago ... the first house burnt down."
A group of investors owns the chicken house that burned on Tuesday. Firefighters were expected to stay at the scene through Tuesday night to completely extinguish the fire, and to also begin the investigation into its cause.
• Credits
Copyright 2024 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
