Nearly 1,000 hogs killed when local farm building burns

Perhaps a thousand hogs died in a barn fire in the early Tuesday morning in rural Madison County.

New Douglas Volunteer Fire Department was called at about 1:45 a.m. to Chad Rensing’s farm on Libbra Road in New Douglas, near Interstate 55. Flames were visible through the roof of the hog operation’s nursery, according to the department’s Facebook post.

Rensing’s Pork and Beef supplies Township Grocer in Edwardsville.

The building was a total loss.

Departments that provided mutual aid were Olive, Alhambra, Staunton, Worden, Grantfork and Shoal Creek. Jim Goestenkor’s Excavating provided excavating equipment to move metal and provide access to the fire.

“Alhambra and New Douglas, they’ve got their act together,” said Jim Goestenkor, who ran the excavating equipment. He arrived at the fire at about 4:15 a.m. from Pierron.

This story was originally published October 3, 2017 at 3:54 PM with the headline "Nearly 1,000 hogs killed when local farm building burns."