A large barn fire killed more than 150 sheep Friday, in Breadalbane.
A huge plume of black smoke could be seen from as far away as Summerside as firefighters from multiple departments, RCMP and others raced to the scene on the Inkerman Road.
Melanie Cousins was nearby when smoke started billowing through the area.
She saw the fire quickly consume the large barn.
“Flames just started shooting up … we actually thought it was trees catching fire,” she said.
“It’s heartbreaking.”
New Glasgow Fire Department Chief Jason Peters said the blaze broke out sometime in the late morning. The farm’s owner and his granddaughter had just left barn and were in the nearby house having lunch when they realized something was wrong.
Most of the more than 200 sheep housed in the structure were still trapped inside when firefighters arrived. First responders were eventually able to free some of them, but initial estimates are that more than 150 sheep died in the blaze and more would probably have to be euthanized due to their injuries.
The surviving members of the flock were being transported to a nearby farm for care. No people were injured.
The fire chief said it was a difficult situation, in many ways.
“Any call like that is tough. Especially in this case where it’s a local farmer and everyone knows him. But we do what we do,” he said.
They were fortunate the farm had a large pond on site, so water was easy to access, but it just wasn’t enough to save any of the structure.
Occasionally a soot-covered sheep would appear from somewhere and firefighters would herd it towards where the rest of the survivors were penned.
As for what might have caused the blaze to break out, Peters said it was still too early in the investigation to pin-down the cause.
The provincial fire marshal’s office will be investigating.
“At this point we don’t know. We’re still trying to get to the bottom of it; haul some steel off the roof that caved in, search through a bit of stuff and see what we can come up with,” he said.
The farm’s owner did not wish to speak to the media.
@JournalPMacLean
