Michigan barn fire kills 1 horse, 9 cows in Fenton Township

A barn fire left one horse and nine cows dead Monday morning in Fenton Township in the latest Michigan barn fire with animal fatalities. 

The fire, located at Hogan Road, broke out around 12:43 a.m., said Fenton Township Fire Department Chief Ryan Volz. Fire crews arrived on scene around and had the fire under control by 2:07 a.m., Volz said.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation. 

The barn was a complete loss and was an isolated structure. There were no other injuries in the incident. 

The fire is the second in 2020 to kill livestock after 300,000 hens died in a barn fire in Otsego Township in southwest Michigan. 

The fire broke out around 11 a.m. Jan. 3 and destroyed the barn.

Michigan had the most reported animal deaths from fires in 2019, according to a Dec. 17 report from the Animal Welfare Institute. Michigan reported 253,000 deaths from 14 fires in 2019, including the fire that killed 250,000 hens at Herbruck's Poultry Ranch in Iona County. 

North Carolina was second to Michigan in animal deaths by fire with 42,500 deaths in five separate fires. 

“Such a massive loss of life that involves extreme suffering would be considered horrific and unacceptable if the victims weren’t animals raised for food,” said Dena Jones, director of AWI’s farm animal program in an AWI news release. “Even millions of deaths are of little consequence or concern, however, to an industry that produces animals by the billions and views the life of an individual animal as having virtually no value.”

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Meredith Spelbring is a news intern for the Detroit Free Press. Reach her at mspelbring@gannett.com or on Twitter @mere0415.