Local fire departments battle blaze at poultry facility

The air was thick with smoke between Harris and May City last week thanks to a fire that burned for nearly two full days.

Fire departments from May City and Harris were paged to Sunrise Farms' poultry facility on White Avenue around 11 p.m. on May 9. A large stockpile of cornstalk bales had caught fire, and it would wind up taking 44 hours before the final flames flickered out.

May City Fire Chief Nick Shaffer called it a "once-a-decade type of fire." Approximately 3,000 bales were lost during the incident, but no injuries were reported and no accidents occurred.

"I'm thoroughly impressed with ourselves and our neighboring departments," Shaffer said. "We had no accidents and no close calls. Everybody worked together phenomenally. It was like clockwork."

Shaffer suspects the fire began via spontaneous combustion in a pile of ground up cornstalk bales. It spread rapidly, as first responders had limited access to the flames thanks to a muddy field and inadequately equipped vehicles. Strong winds also aided the fire.

"Our stuff isn't capable of getting through that kind of terrain," Shaffer explained. "By Tuesday morning, basically every bale was on fire except one little pile in the corner. We decided to bring in equipment to spread it out to burn faster and burn itself out."

Firefighters monitored the burn throughout the day on Tuesday. However, with the forecast calling for 30-35 mph wind gusts on Wednesday, Shaffer knew a different plan was needed.

"There were some buildings nearby that had parts exposed because of recent wind damage, and the last thing we needed was to have one of those embers to fly up and light three buildings on fire," he said. "That's when we decided we needed all hands on deck."

Neighboring fire departments were called in to "surround and drown" the flames. Heavy equipment was also used to move bales around and spread out the burning material. Shaffer said his squad returned to the fire station on Wednesday at 7:20 p.m., just four hours shy of logging a two-day call.

In addition to May City and Harris, other responding fire departments came from Hartley, Lake Park, Melvin, Milford, Ocheyedan and Sibley. Shaffer said the blaze opened his eyes to just how badly area fire departments need volunteers.

"At one point there were five departments there and only 14 guys. I looked around and thought, wow this is pathetic," he said. "If you've ever thought about volunteering, please get in touch with your local department. You know, how would you like if your house was on fire and only three guys showed up?"

The cornstalk bales were being ground up to compost more than 5 million chickens, which were destroyed at the facility due to an outbreak of bird flu. Aside from the burned bales, the only other damage reported was to a hose that sprung a leak during the incident.