Blaze levels hog barn operation

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This article was published 16/04/2015 (3286 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A barn fire in the RM of Ste Anne has destroyed a hog farm operation on Greenland Road east of Highway 12. Huge plumes of smoke could be seen on Friday afternoon as barns at the Stockridge Farms property went up in flames.

Emergency crews were called to the scene around 12:45 p.m. and was extinguished around 3:30 p.m. RCMP said in a late afternoon press release that about 3,000 hogs were believed to be in the barn and that it appears all died in the fire.

High winds and dry conditions made Friday another busy day for local fire departments. Crews from the Town of Ste Anne, RM of Ste Anne, Tache and La Broquerie all arrived on the scene to assist with the fight.

In January, Stockridge Farms co-owner Chris Reimer told the Winnipeg Free Press that they expected to bring new breeding stock to their vacant barns in February or March. In that interview, Reimer described how Stockridge Farms was hit hard last year by the PED virus and forced to euthanize more than 2,000 piglets last fall as a result of the virus.

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.