Two hog barns burned to the ground early today near Steinbach, killing an unknown number of hogs.
RCMP said it's not known what caused the blaze at the Silverado Barns, which are located seven kilometres south of Sarto on Highway 12 in the Rural Municipality of LaBroquerie.
Silverado Barns is owned by Hytek Ltd., a LaBroquerie-based firm which is Canada's second largest pork producer.
LaBroquerie Fire Chief Alan Nadeau said in an interview that fire fighters were able to save a third barn that contained about 1,000 hogs. But they couldn't save two smaller barns on the farm.
He said investigators haven't been able to determine how many hogs were in those two facilities. Although one Steinbach radio station was reporting today that "thousands" of hogs perished, all Nadeau would say is that it was "many hogs."
RCMP said a passerby spotted the fire at about 3:35 a.m. and notified the owners. The RCMP and fire department were called and firefighters from four area fire departments responded.
Nadeau said no one was injured in the fire and the RCMP and officials from the provincial fire commissioner's office are continuing their investigation. He didn't know how long it would take to determine a cause or a damage estimate.
murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca
PREVIOUS
