Minnesota barn fire kills as many as 2,000 hogs

Dec 07, 2016

Blaze happened in Kerkhoven

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

A barn fire in Minnesota’s Swift County resulted in the loss of nearly 2,000 hogs on Tuesday.

According to the West Central Tribune, Swift County Sheriff John Holtz said fire crews received news of the blaze just after 2:00 pm.

Firefighters from Kerkhoven, Murdock, DeGraff, Pennock and Sunburg responded to the situation on the 1000 block of 165th Avenue Southeast in Kerkhoven. The property owner thinks the fire may have started with a space heater which started running when electrical crews working on a nearby power line turned the power back on.

Photo: Briana Sanchez

“It’s just a challenge,” property owner Grant Krieger told the West Central Tribune. “We’ve had (challenges) before.”

There’s currently no estimated dollar amount of damage. Sheriff Holtz said there’s no official cause yet and the Minnesota Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating.

The Minnesota Fire Marshal's office told Farms.com the investigation is ongoing and will continue to provide updates as they become available.

Farms.com has reached out to the Kerkhoven Fire Department for investigation updates.

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