About 100,000 hens die in Bozrah egg farm fire, CT Dept. of Agriculture estimates

BOZRAH, CT (WFSB) - Crews battled a massive 3-alarm fire at an egg farm in Bozrah over the weekend.

The Connecticut Department of Agriculture estimated that about 100,000 egg-laying hens were killed.

Officials said the fire was at Hillandale Farms on Schwartz Road on Saturday.

“The Connecticut Department of Agriculture commends the swift actions of both employees and the many first responder units to contain the fire at Hillandale Farms in Bozrah to a single structure, preventing any additional losses,” said Rebecca Murphy, CT Department of Agriculture. “CT Department of Agriculture will be working with Hillandale Farms to confirm the extent of damage.”

Officials said a 400′x50′ chicken coop was lost; however, another 13 chicken coops were saved during the fire.

Locals say smoke from the fire can be seen for miles.

“It was just completely, that whole part of the sky was engulfed in smoke and dark, we couldn’t see any flames obviously, but it was pretty bad,” said Crystal Kylio from Bozrah.

In total, 21 fire departments responded to the fire. Firefighters were on scene for 8 hours.

The Salvation Army was also brought in to help.

“According to a USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) report from Sept. 2022, there are more than 372 million egg laying hens in the United States,” Murphy told Channel 3. “The anticipated potential impact on egg prices due to this incident is minimal to none at this time.”

No injuries have been reported.

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