Nearly 520,000 heads of poultry have been destroyed at a large-scale poultry farm in the Kursk Oblast of Russia, Russian media outlet Interfax has reported.
The poultry farm belongs to the Kursky Agricultural Holding and located in the Beketovky village of the Gorshchevsky area.
According to preliminary results of the inspection, the fire occurred due to a short circuit at a poultry site. The fire then spread across two poultry sites of the company, covering the area of about 3,000 square meters. About hundred firemen and 17 units of the fire-fighting services struggled against the fire for three hours.
The total damage to the company is estimated to be RUB 460 million (US$ 14 million). The representatives of the company say that the reconstruction works at the facility will be launched soon. It is still unclear how long it will last.
Experts say that this is the most large-scale fire of the Russian poultry farming in recent history. Previously, such incidents usually resulted in the death of several hundreds or several thousands of heads of poultry.