‘It’s a big loss:’ Massive fire at hog operation impacts Sturgis

It was just after 11:30 a.m. on Sunday when fire crews heard about the barn fire near Sturgis.

Sturgis and District Fire Chief Brad Secundiak said crews arrived on the scene with two pieces of firefighting equipment, but due to the heavy smoke, they couldn’t get to the barns.

More than 10,000 pigs died in the blaze.

“There’s only one access road in to the barns. We couldn’t access it at that time because we couldn’t see the road through the thick smoke,” he said.

They were stalled for about half an hour before they were able to make their way to the barns.

“The first barn closest to the east was pretty well fully engulfed by the time we were able to access (the) property,” Secundiak said. “There was approximately 40 feet of structure left of the nice barn.”

He said the feed corridor and office space were already ablaze, and the fire had already spread to the second barn.

“There wasn’t a whole lot we could do at that point,” Secundiak said. “(It was) completely unsalvageable when we arrived on scene.”

The operation is owned by Olymel, a Quebec-based food processing company.

The burning represents a heavy loss for Sturgis and the surrounding area. The barn employed a number of members of the community.

“The nice thing about the local finishing barns is that of course it provides an outlet for local grain producers to haul their feed grains to the mill,” Sturgis Mayor Don Olson said. “That was was a boost for the area.”

Secundiak agreed.

“It’s a pretty big loss for our community,” he said.

Secundiak said the cause of the fire is still unknown.

“Investigation teams were out on scene (Tuesday),” he said. “I attended the scene with them. We’ve basically determined a possible origin place, but cause is going to be too hard to determine due to the amount of damage to the structure.”