Bethel Wood NY Foie Gras Inferno 10-30-07

[Bababoosky 24]

awesome quote "At the height of the fire, a tremendous amount of what appeared to be duck feces erupted from one side of the building"

By Victor Whitman

Times Herald-Record

November 01, 2007

Bethel — Some 15,000 breeding ducks were incinerated in a fire Tuesday night near Swan Lake.

Towering flames that could be seen halfway across the county ripped through a warehouse rented by Hudson Valley Foie Gras, destroying the 30-by-450-foot warehouse, a garage containing equipment and a car.

The fire also caused minor damage to two mobile homes where workers were staying at the plant on Fittkau Road. Nobody was injured.

"It was very intense for quite some time," said Mark Pennell, chief of the Kauneonga Lake Fire Department, standing near the charred wood beams and twisted tin paneling that was still smoking yesterday morning.

"You could see the glow. It was like sunrise."

Several volunteer fire companies arrived shortly after the fire erupted at midnight, but were helpless to stop the flames. No water was available on site.

Hoses had to be run for a mile to Airport Road.

Tanker trucks shuttled back and forth from a pond at the fire training center three miles away.

At the height of the fire, a tremendous amount of what appeared to be duck feces erupted from one side of the building, Pennell said.

Investigators believe the fire started in the garage, where the machinery and the heating system for the plant were located. The fire then jumped to the main building.

Exhaust fans used to cool the building drew the flames through the three stories. The building and garage burned to the foundation.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, Pennell said.

The lost ducks were specially selected from France and used exclusively for breeding, Hudson Valley owner Izzy Yanay said.

Yanay could not place a value on the loss, but said that it was considerable.

Foie gras production is controversial. Hudson Valley Foie Gras, the nation's largest producer of the specialty duck livers, has come under attack by animal rights groups.

But Yanay believes the fire was accidental.

"It is not going to take long before we have a solution," he said. "We won't have a problem with production."

A controversial business

Hudson Valley Foie Gras is one of only three foie gras producers in the United States. Its continued production has brought an onslaught of lawsuits against the company.

To make foie gras, a foot-long metal tube is inserted down a duck's gullet, gorging the animal three times a day for up to four weeks and fattening the liver to 10 times the normal size. The liver is usually whipped into a pate that sells for more than $50 a pound.

The Humane Society of the United States has a lawsuit in state Supreme Court in Albany County to block foie gras production in New York. The factory farm slaughters about 325,000 ducks annually.

[EJS1810 7]

I believe this was Sullivan County NY as in Bethel Woods aka Woodstock

[Bababoosky 24]

i was wondering why they said Hudson Valley, my bad.

[helicopper 1,050]

The fire that killed thousands of ducks was near Swan Lake? Has the Sheriff's Office launched in inquiry to see where the swans were when the fire broke out?

Something smells fowl!!!!!

[IzzyEng4 427]

Thank god we have all those re-runs of Iron Chef!!

"Today's secret ingredient.................. FOIE GRAS!!!!!!!"

[Guest partyrock]

Chris, before you fly again I want the county to run some tox-screens on you. That fowl joke worries me.

[danb 10]

Anyone from Southern Orange County remember when ACE Farms burnt down?

17,000 Chickens! It was a hell of a Chicken Roast that night!