A massive fire tore through Daybreak Foods’ chicken farm northwest of Clearfield, destroying at least one barn packed with birds and marking the second major fire at the site in less than four years.
The fire started on Tuesday, Aug. 26, in a manure building with no chickens inside and spread through a conveyor system that couldn’t be shut off in time, Deputy Chance Strough of the Taylor County Sheriff’s Office told the Des Moines Register.
The flames carried into a housing barn that burned to the ground with more than 110,000 chickens inside. Employees later feared most of the chickens in an adjacent barn also likely died from smoke inhalation when the fire reignited later that night, Strough said.
Smoke billows from burning barns at Daybreak Foods’ chicken farm near Clearfield, Iowa, on Aug. 26, 2025.
Smoke could be seen billowing into the sky in images and videos from the scene. Rod Livesay, who said he was driving into Iowa from Nebraska on Tuesday, told the Des Moines Register he first saw the smoke more than 40 miles away.
“All I saw was heartbreak,” he said. “We prayed for about 15 minutes, and by the time we got done, the other end was engulfed also.”
Chicken barn fire requires more than 25 fire departments
The Taylor County Law Enforcement Center said in a Facebook post that more than 25 departments, over 100 firefighters, four ambulance services and three sheriff’s offices responded to the fire. In a Facebook post, Creston firefighters reported being paged at around 5 p.m. and said with no hydrants on site, tanker trucks carrying 2,000 gallons each shuttled water to portable tanks feeding hose lines. Departments from 11 Iowa counties and three in Missouri fought the fire into the night.
The Clearfield farm, acquired and expanded by Wisconsin-based Daybreak Foods in 2023, has 10 barns capable of holding more than 110,000 chickens each, Strough said.
It was previously owned by a company called Hen Haven, and in 2021 suffered a fire that destroyed its processing plant, biosecurity facilities and one barn, killing about 200,000 hens, according to the Iowa Area Development Group and the Animal Welfare Institute. A 2022 avian influenza outbreak during rebuilding then forced the euthanization of the entire remaining flock.
Daybreak Foods is one of the nation’s largest egg producers. It employs about 1,200 people and manages 24 million hens across facilities in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Ohio. A spokesperson could not be reached for comment.
Iowa is the nation’s top egg producer, with about 40 to 45 million hens that lay more than 13 billion eggs annually, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
No official count of chicken losses or the cause of the fire has been released.
Nick El Hajj is a reporter at the Register. He can be reached at nelhajj@gannett.com.Follow him on X at @nick_el_hajj.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Clearfield, Iowa farm fire kills more than 100,000 chickens
