Boiling Springs, SC (05/15/2021 Paul Kirby) – A poultry house caught fire and was destroyed by fire just after 12:30 p.m. on Friday. Callers placed the fire in the 2300 block of Calks Ferry Road near the intersection of the dirt portion of Boiling Springs Road. This is close to Boiling Springs United Methodist Church. Lexington County firefighters from across central and western Lexington County rushed to the fire to assist in stopping the blaze from extending to other nearby houses and eventually, putting the fire out.
Some of the first responding fire trucks’ crews reported they could see a large column of smoke in the area rising into the sky almost immediately after going enroute. When the first Lexington County firefighters arrived, they reported they had a house that was approximately 200 feet long and well involved in flames They immediately began setting up for a long fight in a defensive mode.
County of Lexington’s Ariel Mapping shows there were four long, narrow chicken production houses on the property where the fire was burning. Much of western and southern Lexington County is dotted with these poultry houses that feed into the region’s food chain and keep many of the local processing plants supplied and working.
In order to establish a water supply to fight the fire, fire truck operators stretched a 5-inch diameter fire hose more than 1000 feet across Calks Ferry Road to a Joint Water and Sewer fire hydrant. This closed Calks Ferry for several hours as law enforcement officers detoured motorist around that hose.
The fire scene’s incident commander requested that Lexington County’s Public Works Department respond with a backhoe to assist fire crews with pulling roof panels off the top of the burning building as it collapsed. By their nature, metal roofing repels water and with those still intact laying on the top of the burning material, the hose streams firefighters were utilizing were not as effective as they should have been. Once the tractor and operator arrived and set up, the panels were puled away exposing the seat of the fire so the crews could extinguish it.
Firefighters stayed on the scene much of Friday afternoon working to completely contain and then extinguish the fire. County officials haven’t said if the house was loaded with chickens at the time of the fire or what they believe started the blaze. No estimated monetary value of the house has been made public at this point.
