Rose Acre Farms’ Johnson County, Missouri, facility suffered a fire that caused minimal damage to one of its barns on November 12, 2022.
The fire affected only one end of the barn, which was housing approximately 100,000 birds at the time. The farm staff attempted to use fire extinguishers before the fire district arrived, after reporting the fire around 1 PM.
According to KMMO News, respondents from the Johnson County and Warrensburg fire departments quickly put the fire out, causing minimal damage to a portion of the structure. At this time, only “limited loss of chicken life” has been reported. Birds were not removed from the barn during the incident and the facility was able to continue operations afterward.
“The fire appears to have started inside an exterior wall in the area of electrical wiring,” stated Joe Jennings, Johnson County Fire Protection District Captain. “A malfunction within the electrical wiring was not ruled out to be the cause of the fire.”
Electrical fires and obtaining insurance
Over the last few years, the U.S. the egg industry has suffered multiple large fires that have caused severe damage and loss of birds. As a result, producers are looking for answers to why this is happening.
Even though there can be multiple root causes of fires, electrical issues are the most common fire claim Ross Milne, Cottingham & Butler Risk Management Consultant, sees from poultry companies. Additionally, there has been a trend of fires occurring in older barns.
To address the issue, the producer’s awareness of fire prevention during the construction process has improved. Currently, producers are mostly building with steel and increasing the separation between barns to prevent fires from occurring and spreading, explained Milne.
While the trend of older houses catching fire more often than newer houses, it does not mean that an older house is harder to insure. Milne added that even though producers are building new barns, they are keeping the older ones. While the older barns exist, he believes there is always going to be a higher risk of a fire occurring.
