The state Department of Agriculture said it appears approximately 100,000 egg-laying hens died. It credited farm employees and emergency responders with preventing more hen deaths by containing the fire to one of the farm's several buildings.
CHICKENS KILLED IN FIRE AT HILLANDALE FARMS PROPERTY IN CONNECTICUT, CAUSE REMAINS UNKNOWN
The agency also said the impact on egg prices was expected to be "minimal to none."
A fire on a Connecticut egg farming plant killed an estimated 100,000 hens over the weekend, officials have now confirmed. (Fox News)
Hillandale Farms, which has corporate offices in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, said in a statement that it is "working with fire officials to support a thorough investigation of the cause of the fire. All employees are safe. There will be no further comment at this time."
On its website, the company says it raises more than 20 million chickens for eggs.
MINNESOTA FIRE AT COMMERCIAL EGG FARM LIKELY LEAVES THOUSANDS OF CHICKENS DEAD
In nearby Lebanon, Connecticut, a fire in 2016 at a Hillandale Farms subsidiary killed 80,000 to 100,000 hens. The company also lost more than 100,000 chickens in a farm fire in Tyrone Township, Pennsylvania, in 2017.
The Animal Welfare Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based animal protection advocacy organization, urged farms Monday to boost safety measures.
The organization said some of the country's largest egg farm fires include one in North Manchester, Indiana, in 2017 that killed 1 million chickens and another in Bloomfield, Nebraska, in 2020 that killed 400,000 hens.
In a report last year, the institute said heating and other electrical malfunctions caused a large majority of barn fires.