1978 MacFarlane Brooder Fire
On May 19th 1978 a fire broke out in the early morning hours destroying the brooding barn at the farm, 7000 chicks were lost. The barn was 60-70 feet in length and the barn was made of mostly wood so the fire spread rapidly. MacFarlane thought that there may have been foul play involved with the accident, but apparently the fire was started by chicks that broke a heat lamp on the floor of the barn. A passer by alerted farmhouse tenants that the barn was on fire saving their lives, Don MacFarlane said “Apparently the man had quite a time getting the people out of bed.” MacFarlane even considered retirement after the fire. Immediately following the fire nearby storage sheds were converted into brooder barns to save the season that was already halfway done. The fire hampered the pheasant season that year but MacFarlane Pheasants pushed ahead because we still had 60,000 orders for chicks that season. The pictures at the the left are from the newspaper article that was published about the fire.