YORKVILLE - Fire ripped through a barn Thursday morning at Maple Leaf Farms, 2319 Raymond Ave., killing roughly 9,300 ducks, including some that were only a day old.

Crews from the Union Grove-Yorkville and Kansasville fire departments responded to the scene of the fire, after receiving the call shortly before 10 a.m.

Smoke lingered in the air around the farm after firefighters extinguished the fire. The barn was located on the east end of the property that sits between 2 Mile Road and Highway 20.

According to Allen, employees at the farm had been cleaning the barn around 8:30 a.m. An employee at another barn on 3 Mile Road later saw smoke and called to see what it was. Employees at the farm went to the barn and found it engulfed in flames.

Crews worked to prevent the fire from spreading to an adjacent barn about 50 feet to the south of the burning barn that housed between 10,000 and 15,000 ducks.

Allen said employees at the farm said the company has roughly 400,000 ducks. Allen said employees told him the company processes 21,000 white Pekin ducks each day.

Headquartered in Milford, Ind., Maple Leaf Farms Inc., is North America's largest producer of ducks. The company has another facility in Los Angeles.

Mark Jeffrey, project manager for Maple Leaf Farms, said Thursday that he had no idea what could have caused the fire, but assumed the company's insurance provider would conduct an investigation once they could get into the barn.

Allen said there have been fires at the farm in the past, including one in a smaller barn, as well as one that happened in a feather processing plant.

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