Rose Acre Farms building destroyed by fire

A fire claimed a Rose Acre Farms building south of Rensselaer, Indiana, on the evening of October 16.

Roy Graber Headshot
(Leaf, Bigstock)
(Leaf, Bigstock)

A fire claimed a Rose Acre Farms building south of Rensselaer, Indiana, on the evening of October 16.

Emergency personnel responded to a call concerning the fire around 7:05 p.m. When responders arrived on the scene, they found the building fully engulfed and collapsing, Chief Deputy Pat Williamson, Jasper County Sheriff’s Department, said in a telephone interview.

There were no hens in the building, which was several hundred feet north of the main building on the property, Williamson said, adding that it was his understanding that the structure was a workshop and that “a lot of tools” were lost.

Multiple fire departments were on the scene, remaining there until about 11 p.m. The fire had rekindled but was extinguished without difficulty.

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, and the Indiana State Fire Marshal’s office is investigating the incident, Williamson said.

Rose Acre Farms is the second largest egg company in the United States and the third largest in the world, trailing only Cal-Maine Foods and Proteina Animal (PROAN). As of December 31, 2017, according to the WATTAgNet Top Poultry Companies Database, the company had 26.9 million layers in its flock.

Other recent fires

Rose Acre Farms is one of two companies in the poultry industry to have experienced a fire within a week. On October 18, a fire and ammonia leak were reported at a Pilgrim’s Pride poultry plant in Guntersville, Alabama. The Pilgrim’s Pride plant was evacuated and the fire was extinguished in a timely manner.

Earlier in 2018, another U.S. egg company suffered losses due to a fire. The Michael Foods pre-cooked egg facility in Klingerstown, Pennsylvania, sustained more than $2.5 million in damages after a fire took place there on May 24. While all employees were evacuated and nobody was injured, operations there were suspended. The fire started in the duct work of an oven.

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