50,000 chickens die in fire after ‘accidental ignition’ at poultry houses

The local fire service said it was continuing to monitor the situation after it had put out the flames

Drone footage showing fire crews controlling the last of the fire (Humberside Fire and Rescue Service/Twitter)

Tens of thousands of hens have been killed in a huge blaze at a poultry farm.

The fire had broken out a chicken house in Driffield, East Yorkshire, before spreading to another, killing about 50,000 hens in total.

Some 45 firefighters were at the scene to deal with the incident, Humberside Fire and Rescue Service said.

Thousands hens were killed in the fire, caused by an “accidental ignition”, which spread over two poultry houses, each containing around 25,000 hens.

Dozens of firefighters attended to the incident, with as many as 45 at one point (Humberside Fire and Rescue Service/Twitter)

The brigade was alerted to the incident at just after 6pm on Friday afternoon. The fire was put out by Saturday afternoon and firefighters are continuing to monitor the situation.

Drone footage shared by the fire service on Twitter showed plumes of smoke rising from the two destroyed poultry houses with firefighters seen working to control the last of the fire.

Driffield resident Barry Hughes told Hull Live he could see smoke from the other side of the town on Friday evening.

“Me and my partner noticed black smoke in the distance from our house off York Road, the other side of Driffield,” he said. “The smoke appeared to be in the direction we were travelling, so we drove as close as we could onto Skerne Road, we realised it was a chicken farm.

“From our view, we could not see any high flames, but thick bellowing (sic) smoke. Police had closed Skerne Road at the junction of Elm Road.

“The smoke was coming very fast and extremely powerful towards the sky, quite a scary sight. Lots of people were crowding around too.”

Jack Wilkinson, who was driving from Harrogate to his holiday home in South Cliff Bridlington, said homeowners in the area were closing windows due to the thick dark clouds of smoke.