16,000 sows and piglets burned to death in Utah fire

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Publisher: Pamela Rice
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The VivaVine (Fall 2001, Vol. 10, No. 4)

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A quick-moving fire took hold at a swine-farrowing ranch in Iron County, Utah, in late July. The fire tore through buildings so fast that employees were unable to save the 5,000 sows and 11,000 newborn piglets trapped inside. Firefighters from several communities were needed to put out the blaze, according to the Meating Place Web site. The company's director assessed the pigs to be worth about $1 million.

Just one sow can weight 450 pounds. After the fire was extinguished, the pressing environmental risk of thousands of decomposing corpses became a paramount concern to health officials. They first considered incineration but later opted to bury the bodies to avoid air pollution. A well is to be dug next to the landfill where the animals are now interned; it will allow the site to be monitored for deadly bacteria that could threaten the groundwater.

The facility was owned by Smithfield Foods of Virginia and is part of the Circle Four Farms, a 55,000-sow enterprise based in Milford, Utah.

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