A fire in an equipment shed at Hurd Farm in Hampton killed 75 live birds Monday night into Tuesday morning. The building was destroyed, along with the farm’s turkey processing equipment, owners said. “That burnt my livestock trailer there, which had about 150 birds on it,” owner Steve Hurd said. “I lost half of them.”
Fire officials said the shed contained items that helped fuel the fire. “There’s a lot of things in there,” said Fire Chief Michael McMahon. “There’s oftentimes fuel and vehicles and things like that that are prone to having fires and certainly add fuel.”
Owners said in addition to the 75 live birds that were killed, the majority of the turkeys that had already been processed were also destroyed, less than two weeks before Thanksgiving. Hurd told News 9 that he’s trying to determine whether he can fulfill all his orders by Sunday.
“We think we’re going to have enough if we can get them processed,” he said. “Actually, my daughter and I were talking last night, and we think we’ve got somewhere around 550 all sold. So, we think โ it’s going to be tight.” He said the farm is turning to others to see if anyone can help process the remaining turkeys before Thanksgiving.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation. The fire chief said a firefighter suffered minor injuries, but no one else was hurt in the fire. WMUR visited the farm on Monday for a story about turkey prices. Hurd said Thanksgiving accounts for about one-third of the farmโs income.
