Chicken house burns to the ground near Batesburg and Samaria
Batesburg, SC (Paul Kirby) – A chicken house burned to the ground shortly after 6:00 a.m. Saturday morning between Batesburg, Gilbert, and Samaria. When the fire was reported, the original callers could not pinpoint the exact location of the blaze because they were seeing the flames in the dark sky from a good distance away. The first Lexington County Fire Service truck arrived, and they reported that the fire was at a location they had responded to a smaller fire on Friday in the 6700 block of Two Notch Road. The cause of that Friday fire that just produced light smoke hasn’t been asked for or released to the media. It was thought to be minor and did little to no damage.
At 6:30 a.m. Saturday, multiple fire equipment and personnel were on the scene pouring water on the fire with hand-lines manned by firefighters. They were basically holding the fire in place and had asked that the county’s Department of Public Works respond with a tractor to tear the rubble apart so they could fully put the fire out. Keep in mind that the metal sheets of roofing on the house were designed to repel water from rain. Leaving that laying over the remains of the structure as it fell when the building collapsed would repel the water from fire hoses and could have firefighters on the scene for days putting water on the remains of the chicken house.
Poultry production is a huge industry in Lexington County. Areas west of Lexington have multiple chicken production farms dispersed through the countryside. There are several large businesses here that process the poultry products for sale in stores as well.
At some point, personnel from the fire service will try and determine the cause and origin of the fire. Whatever took place Friday will certainly be a part of that discussion. If the house was full of poultry at the time of the fire, that could hinder that process. If at any point, the fire was thought to be intentionally set, law enforcement would be brought in to help investigate.
