Chicken farm fire draws 25 departments

CLEARFIELD - Creston Fire Department was one of 25 departments to respond to a structure fire on Daybreak Foods’ Clearfield chicken farm Tuesday night. More than 100 firefighters from the area assembled to tackle a blaze which would kill More than 110,000 chickens according to the Des Moines Register.

Taylor County dispatch requested mutual aid from Creston at 4:48 p.m. for a fire in a chicken coop located in the 1600 block of Yellowstone Avenue in Clearfield. Recognizing that this was a large production facility, Car 1 and three fire trucks from Creston responded and arrived at Daybreak Foods at 5:18 p.m.

Engine 2 laid a supply line to Tanker 4 and was positioned close to the burning building. Additional departments set up portable tanks next to Tanker 4, which pumped water to Engine 2 and subsequently to the firefighters.

Other departments established more portable tanks in at least two additional strategic locations to assist in battling the fire. Multiple structures were damaged. Creston left one truck on scene overnight.

Besides Creston, fire departments responded from Clearfield, Bedford, Blockton, Diagonal, Mount Ayr, Weldon, Lenox, Corning, Prescott, Orient, Afton, Murray, New Market, Gravity, Woodburn, Villisca, Sharpsburg, Greenfield, Massena, Stanton, Clarinda, Hopkins, Union Township, and Worth County, with the last three coming from Missouri.

Taylor County and Greater Regional Health’s EMS personnel were on-site, and the Taylor County Sheriff’s Office along with two other county Sheriff’s Offices provided traffic control, which was particularly helpful as tankers transported water to the scene.

According to information from the Iowa Area Economic Development Group, this is the second major fire at the site. In November 2021, when the facility was owned a company called Hen Haven, a fire destroyed the processing plant, biosecurity facilities and one of the barns for layer chickens.