Fire burns 3 buildings, chickens at Stanwood farm

About 171,000 chickens perished in a three-alarm fire that began late Tuesday and burned three large coops to the ground at a commercial chicken farm near Stanwood, according to fire officials.

Snohomish County Fire Marshals and the FBI are now on the scene, searching for the origin of the fire that caused an estimated $2.2 million in damage, said Battalion Chief Christian Davis of the North County Regional Fire Authority in Snohomish County.

Davis explained that the coops, which are each 60-feet wide by 600-feet long and run east to west, are attached at one end by a structure where feeders, conveyor belts and other equipment were located. He said fire investigators are concentrating on that structure in their search for a cause.

The first tones sounded at 11:53 p.m., and firefighters arrived to find flames shooting out of the buildings, Davis said. Because the farm is in a rural area, water access was an issue, requiring more than a dozen tender trucks to supply water. Firefighters from Skagit and Island counties were called in to help.

"It was a defensive fire from the start," Davis said, noting that 60 firefighters battled the blaze for four hours, successfully saving an office building on the property.

The fire was contained by 4 a.m. but as of 11 a.m., it still wasn't officially tapped as firefighters worked to put out hot spots, Davis said.

"There's nothing suspicious" about the fire, but federal officials are helping investigate the blaze because of the high value loss, he said.

The farm is owned by National Food Corporation, Davis said.