A pig is believed to have started a fire late Wednesday morning that caused mild damage to the Rescue and Refuge Barn at Farm Sanctuary, in Watkins Glen, upstate New York.
Fire chief Joe Dillon said that investigators believe that the pig knocked off the top of a heater that had been placed to keep the water in the trough from freezing.
The top fell on the ground strewn with straw, which ignited, starting the blaze that took fire fighters 45 minutes to bring under control.
Four staff members suffered smoke inhalation, and were treated for minor injuries after rescuing the animals housed in the Rescue and Refuge Barn, including two calves and three goats.
None of the animals were injured and the barn (one of ten) sustained minor damage.
"*" indicates required fields
Notifications
It's your legal right to choose which information a website may store and have access to. With your permission, we and our third-party partners (18) store and/or access information on a device, such as unique identifiers in cookies and browsing data to collect and process personal data.
We and our partners do the following data processing:
Store and/or access information on a device, Advertising based on limited data and advertising measurement, Personalised content, content measurement, audience research, and services development
If you accept any or all of these, you will have agreed to this website's use of cookies for these purposes. You may also choose to refuse consent, but certain personalized features of the site won't be available to you.