The cause of a fire that tore through a barn full of pigs in Ontario's North Middlesex on Wednesday morning is under investigation, but there is no reason to believe it is suspicious, fire officials said.
Fire crews with the North Middlesex Fire Department were called to a pig farm on Elm Tree Drive, between Sylvan and Roddick roads, northeast of Arkona, around 7:10 a.m. ET.
Fire and other emergency crews found a large barn on the property engulfed in flames, with the roof already collapsed, said Greg Vandenheuvel, the fire chief of North Middlesex.
The barn contained roughly 3,000 pigs. All of them died in the fire.
"The size of the structure is the challenge. We can't go interior, so everything has to be done from the exterior, and it being in the rural areas, water supply is a concern, so we're running tanker shuttles," Vandenheuvel told CBC News.
"There was no way anybody could be going inside. Even if we had, it wouldn't have accomplished anything."
Members of Lambton Shores and Adelaide Metcalfe fire departments were called in to assist in putting out the fire, which Vandenheuvel estimates took around three to four hours to get under control.
"The fire is now contained within the four walls of the barn, and we've eliminated the bigger fire, but [it] will continue to smoulder for probably days," he said. It didn't appear any other buildings on the property were damaged, he added.
Fire crews remained at the scene as of mid-afternoon. A damage estimate was not immediately available, and the Ontario Office of the Fire Marshal has been contacted.
Elm Tree Drive was closed Wednesday for a time between Sylvan Road and Roddick Road but has reopened.