A heater malfunction resulted in a fire at a turkey farm this morning in Northeast Dubois County.
At around 10:07 this morning, multiple reports of a structure fire were made to a turkey farm owned by Kevin and Shawn Kalb on North Hickory Grove Road in Dubois.
According to Shawn Kalb, heaters were being worked on in an empty turkey house. After a heater was turned on by a farm hand, the farmhand left the house to move to another building on the farm. Shortly after, he noticed smoke coming from the empty turkey house and saw that the structure was starting to come ablaze. Not too long after, firefighters from Dubois Volunteer Fire Department along with many first responders arrived to help battle the fire. A request of tanker trucks from the Haysville and Celestine Fire Departments were made but weren’t needed because the fire was only a 40-foot span in the center of the 600ft building.
Although no one was hurt and no birds were lost, the fire did cause damage to trusses, electrical wiring and to the ceiling of the building. Fortunately, the building was NOT a total loss and can be repaired.
The fire was quickly put out. Sixteen firefighters were on the scene for about 30 minutes with two trucks in tow.
