By Jim Brown
jim@peicanada.com

One man was taken to Western Hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation during a fire which devastated Silver Hill Fur Farm in Seacow Pond late Sunday afternoon.

The man, the business’s owner, was later released.

The fire did not hurt any of the operation’s animals, including mink and foxes.

Tignish Fire Chief Harley Perry said the fire is being investigated by the PEI Fire Marshal’s office Monday. Fortunately, nobody was seriously injured and the fire did not spread beyond the building that housed the animals’ food supply and equipment for cooking and mixing the feed, as well as farm tractors and feed carts.

Nearby homes and other structures were spared, including a barn with hay and a horse and pens holding foxes and mink.

Fire Chief Perry said 22 Tignish firefighters were joined by firefighters from Alberton and Miminegash.

He said his firefighters, answering a 911 call around 4 pm Sunday, remained at the scene for about four and a half hours, but spent half that time dousing “hot spots.”
By the time they arrived the building was fully engulfed and the roof was down, said Fire Chief Perry.

It was his fire department’s first major fire of 2012.

Fire Chief Perry said the wind blew the fire directly back onto the engulfed building, not to neighbouring structures. That protected other nearby buildings, including pens where live mink and foxes were kept.