More than 18,000 chooks have been left deceased after a shed caught fire at a Euroa property this morning.
Firefighters were called to reports of smoke issuing from a building on Drysdale Road at 5.47am on 28 October.
Crews from Euroa, Miepoll, Longwood, Branjee and Molka responded to the poultry shed fire, before the blaze was brought under control and a stop was issued on the incident at 6.17am.
District 22 Travis Harris said the fire has resulted in a total loss of the shed, which was 145m x 19m in size.
“It was a complicated incident because when we were attempting to extinguish the fire with water it was reacting with chook manure, which was spread around 200ml thick throughout the shed, resulting in a by-product of ammonia and other dangerous gases,” Mr Harris said.
“The size of the shed and nature of the fire posed significant issues in terms of fire suppression.”
“At no point were the structures surrounding the shed under threat because we had it contained to the structure of origin.”
There were 13 CFA vehicles called to the incident earlier this morning.
Mr Harris said the manure has continued to smoulder and crews will be required to be on scene at all times over the next four days to monitor the site.
“At this stage we are going to re-evaluate on a daily basis and watch how the manure breaks down,” he said.
“We do know the approximate location of where the fire has started, but due to the continued smouldering, investigators have not been able to enter the building and conduct an assessment.”
The fire has not been treated as suspicious at this stage and a cause will be determined at a later date.
