Fire levels pig barn near Wingham, Ont.

Pig barn fire erupts near Wingham An early morning barn fire broke out near Wingham Monday morning, killing an unknown number of pigs. Scott Miller reports.

Steve Pilon was on his way to work this morning shortly before 6 a.m. on Monday when he spotted a yellow glow in the sky.

A barn between Wingham and Whitechurch was on fire.

“When we arrived the barn was fully engulfed,” said North Huron Fire Chief, Kent Readman. “So, our crews started right away, and called in mutual aid from Howick, Teeswater, Lucknow and Huron East.”

A number of pigs perished in the blaze, which levelled a century-old bank barn that had some additions put onto it over the years, said Readman. Fire crews had to shuttle water in from nearby Wingham to try and keep the fire from spreading to a nearby home.

“We have it under control. We have an excavator here to move the steel, and open the barn up a little bit so we can fully extinguish it,” said Readman.

At its peak, smoke from the barn fire wafted west into Wingham, prompting a warning from the fire department.

“The smoke was definitely heading towards town, so we did try to get some messaging out for people to close their windows, and stay inside, if they could. I think it’s dissipating now, but it can shift at anytime too, so we just wanted people to be cautious with the smoke,” he said.

Readman said the cause of the fire is not considered suspicious.

The section of Highway 86 closed west of Wingham to assist with water trucking, and staging, reopened shortly after 2 p.m.