A fire at Sparks Egg Farm northeast of Calgary destroyed 23,000 laying hens and four barns June 7.
The cause of the fire that blazed through the barns is still under investigation, said Rocky View County fire chief Ken McMullen.
It broke out in the afternoon in one barn and strong winds swept through and destroyed all four buildings and a workshop.
None of the farm’s 80 employees were injured, said Christina Robinson of Alberta Egg Producers.
Sparks Eggs is a third generation family run operation owned by Meb Gilani. It has been in business for 35 years.
Read Also
Canada’s plant hardiness zones receive update
The latest update to Canada’s plant hardiness zones and plant hardiness maps was released this summer.
“The family is quite devastated by the loss of the birds,” said David Webb of Alberta Egg Producers.
The unit was the family’s main operation, and Webb did not know its future plans.
The grading station received only minimal smoke damage and work resumed by the weekend. Sparks grades half the eggs in southern Alberta, handling an average of 1.2 million per day. However, about 1.5 million a day went through the station to catch up following the fire.
“Our industry is pulling together and other grading stations in Alberta and Saskatchewan are taking the eggs and grading them,” Robinson said.
The farm was a major producer of generic and specialty products such as grain fed and brown omega 3 eggs. Other Alberta producers have already agreed to change their feed programs to make those eggs available so therewill be no disruption in the provincial supply.
———
access=subscriber section=news, none, none
