By BETH ZUMWALT
A fire at a hog confinement building east of Nebo was discovered on fire Sunday, July 12 around 6 a.m. The smallest of three buildings was totally engulfed when workers arrived. The buildings were owned by Pike Pigs.
“Workers discovered the fire when they came to work,” Josh Martin, fire chief of the Spring Creek Fire Department, said. “The building that burned was a building where the employees changed, showered, where they kept records, stuff like that. There were no hogs in that building.”
Martin said the fire had started spreading to the two larger buildings in the complex, buildings with hogs in them.
“We immediately started knocking down the flames in the two larger buildings and got them under control,” Martin said. “Less than 10 hogs were lost to the blaze.”
Martin said Spring Creek Fire Department was assisted at the scene by Pleasant Hill, who under a joint agreement, responds to all call with Spring Creek and vice versa, Pittsfield, East Pike and North Calhoun Fire Departments. Calls were for manpower and water to fight the blaze.
“Spring Creek was on scene until about noon,” Martin said. “ I released everybody else about 8 or 8:30 a.m. We waited until we could get the metal tore off the building and put out some hot spots, plus we were waiting for the fire marshall to arrive.”
While Spring Creek was at the fire, a call for a side-by-side accident at Heartland Lodge and a medical emergency call were handled by Pleasant Hill, who had already been released from the scene.
