New Zealand Firefighters Burned In Chicken House Flashover

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FELICITY ROSS
The Daily News

"This is my worst nightmare."

Lepperton poultry farm owner Neville Wells could only watch in horror as his new chicken shed burnt to the ground yesterday.

Two firefighters remain in hospital after being caught in a flashover while battling the large blaze.

A 34-year-old suffered serious injuries with burns to his back and arms while a 31-year-old was left with moderate injuries and also suffered burns to his back and arms. New Plymouth fire officer Hamish Smith said the two injured men were caught in a "flashover".

"It is a spontaneous ignition of combustible materials in the building and they were caught in that," Mr Smith said.

He said other fire officers were supporting the families of the injured men.

More than 85 firefighters from all over North Taranaki fought the blaze which has destroyed Mr Wells' 100-metre long chicken shed.

"I am so grateful there was no livestock in the shed," said Mr Wells.

He was expecting a delivery of 20,000 chickens to be housed in the burnt shed today.

The fire started at about 4.30pm, with fire officers trying to put it out throughout the night.

Mr Wells believes the fire started from one of the gas heaters he was using to heat up the shed for the chickens.

"It must have self-imploded," he said.

"There were flames coming out 30 metres off the shed. There were just flames and thick black smoke."

"I'm just thankful there were no tears and no chickens inside that building.

"This is my worst nightmare."

Mr Wells, a third generation chicken farmer, said it is common practice to heat up his sheds for the chickens before they arrived.

"I noticed smoke pouring out of the vents and then the alarm went off.

"The shed is totally gone. The firefighters took water out of the swimming pool and all of the tanks and they still needed more."

Mr Smith said firefighters were battling the blaze after 9pm last night and could not confirm what had started it.

"It is a very difficult building to extinguish and because we are in a rural area it has taken a long period of time to get the water," he said.

A force of 85 firefighters was unusual but necessary due to the exceptional circumstances of the blaze.

"It's a large industrial building so the size of the building and the physical nature of fire fighting to extinguish it."

Copyright 2010 Taranaki Newspapers Limited
All Rights Reserved
October 14, 2010


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I have seen some of the thin turn outs that are often used here, I hope that the firefighters were protected well enough . Get well brothers
I hope these firefighters will recover fully.

I wonder why they were doing an interior attack on an empty chicken house, though.
I'd be interested in hearing why that tactic was selected if anyone knows.
I come from an area with a lot of turkey barns and those are just pole sheds that are wide open area with wood shavings for bedding and a little supply room in the middle. And most times there are 2 connected so if there was a fire, exposure protection was a pain bc they were only 10ft apart. We never do an interior attack because of the structure of the building and we had exposure protection to worry about as well as the 10k gallon propane tanks usually not far away.
all i can say is that the 2 guys that were injured are doing well in hospital , the most serious was transferred to a better burns unit today and the are expected to make good recoveries , asto the turnout gear we all have the same lion turnout kit that is same the world over ......
for the tactic i have know idea personally i cant comment cos i wasnt there .
I will try to keep you up with the info on the guys
Rod

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