SHEFFIELD MILLS, N.S -- Nearly 30,000 chicks are dead after a fire burned through a barn in the Annapolis Valley Saturday morning.
Firefighters say the three-storey barn was fully engulfed in flames within minutes, making it impossible for crews to get inside the building.
“Basically, the entire building inside was burning, it began to collapse about 10 minutes after we arrived,” said firefighter Jeffrey Skaling.
Crews worked all morning attempting to extinguish the blaze, setting up a bladder on the front lawn of the property for fire trucks to refill at before returning to the barn.
Hours later parts of the rubble were still smoldering. All that's left standing is a small shed and a grain silo used to hold food for the chickens that lived in the barn.
Donna Taylor rents the house next to the farm property; she says she was woken up by the fire just outside her window as fire crews worked to spray the area to contain the blaze.
“All I could think about was those poor little chickens,” she said.
“It was probably pretty quick for most of them, so just knowing that they were in there is a bit of an issue,” said Skaling.
The family that owns the property declined to say much about the incident, but did mention that they still have other crops to take care of.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Emily Baron Cadlof
