3 adults hurt, 180 hogs killed in farm’s 2nd fire in a year

WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE, Ohio – Authorities say a barn fire injured three construction workers and killed an estimated 180 hogs at an Ohio farm where about 5,000 pigs died in another blaze last year.

The three adults with reported burn injuries were flown to a Columbus hospital after the fire Tuesday at Straathoff Swine Farm in Fayette County, about 40 miles (64 kilometres) southwest of Columbus.

County Sheriff Vernon Stanforth says the barn that caught fire was under construction. There was no immediate determination about what caused the blaze.

The Record Herald newspaper in nearby Washington Court House reports the barn that burned Tuesday was a replacement on the site of one of the two buildings destroyed by the fire last June. Neighbors complained that a stench from the earlier blaze lingered for months.