United Poultry Concerns
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7 November 2014
20,000 Chickens Die in Pennsylvania Fire
 
Act Now! Petition Needs Your Signature & Support

No Fire Protection for Farmed Animals - Please Sign & Share This Petition

The petition:
http://www.upc-online.org/welfare/141014_no_fire_protection_for_farmed_animals.html

Since posting this petition to the National Fire Protection Association in October, urging them to require U.S. agribusiness companies to install fire prevention systems in farmed animal confinement buildings, 20,000 chickens burned to death on November 4 trapped in a burning building in central Pennsylvania. 40,000 newborn chicks burned to death at the same farm 2 years ago yet “No fire hydrants are near the farm,” according to this news report:

BARN FIRE KILLS 20,000 YOUNG CHICKENS NEAR LEBANON, PENNSYLVANIA
The Blade, November 5, 2014
http://www.toledoblade.com/Police-Fire/2014/11/04/Barn-fire-kills-20-000-young-chickens-near-Lebanon-Pennsylvania.html

Harrisburg, Pa. – An intense fire destroyed a Pennsylvania poultry barn today, killing 20,000 young chickens less than two years after another barn blaze at the same farm incinerated 40,000 hatchlings.

More than 60 firefighters from 16 fire companies battled the flames for more than six hours at the farm in North Cornwall Township in central Pennsylvania, near Harrisburg, said Neversink Fire Company Chief Mike Nelson. “When these things go, the odds of stopping it are little to none,” Nelson said. No fire hydrants are near the farm, so 10 water tankers were called in for the fire, which broke out after midnight.

Because of its intensity, an exact cause will probably never be known, Nelson said. Damages were estimated to be about $500,000, which Nelson said was the estimate used when the other poultry barn on the same farm burned in March 2013.

The farm is owned by Carl and Beth Longenecker, who are divorced, Nelson said. Beth Longenecker, who lives on the property and was the operator of the poultry business, could not be reached for comment.

Bird trapped in a fire

Imagine being trapped in a fire.

Please sign this Care2 Petition targeting the NFPA and pass it on.

To learn more about UPC’s campaign, click on National Fire Protection Association.

Thank you for taking action.
– United Poultry Concerns


8 November 2014
Act Now! Petition Update on Fire Protection for Farmed Animals Campaign
 

Dear Friends,

Turns out the Care2 Petition to the National Fire Protection Association posted on Oct. 13, 2014 is closed already (we first shared it with our supporters on Oct. 14), but UPC’s Change.org petition with more than 6000 signatures is open! So please sign it if you didn’t yet, and see our update below. In addition to signing our Change.org Petition, you can write directly to the NFPA. Contact info is at the bottom of this alert. But first, please sign here:

www.change.org/petitions/national-fire-protection-association-farmed-animals-need-protection-from-preventable-fires

Update:

In an email to United Poultry Concerns on October 17, 2014, Dawn Bellis, Secretary of the NFPA Standards Council, replied to our inquiry about the status of their deliberations on fire protection for “Category B” animals (farmed animals) that the Second Draft Report of NFPA 150, including all public comments submitted to them this year, will be included within the Report of NFPA 150,Standard for Fire & Life Safety in Animal Housing Facilities. The Report will be available for viewing on January 16, 2015 at www.nfpa.org/150next. We will update our members as information becomes available.

What Can I Do?

The NFPA has a set of fundamental principles already in place:

The requirements of NFPA 150 recognize the following fundamental principles: (1) Animals are sentient beings with a value greater than that of simple property. (2) Animals, both domesticated and feral, lack the ability of self-preservation when housed in buildings and other structures. (3) Current building, fire, and life safety codes do not address the life safety of the animal occupants. The requirements found in NFPA 150 are written with the intention that animal housing facilities will continue to be designed, constructed, and maintained in accordance with the applicable building, fire, and life safety codes.

Please write a polite letter to the National Fire Protection Association urging that the codes and standards applicable to other categories of animals (in zoos, for example) be developed and adopted on behalf of Category B animals. Category B animals – farmed animals – represent the largest number of fire victims in the United States each year. Request a written response to your plea on behalf of these animals. No animal should ever have to die in a preventable fire.

Contact:

Dawn Bellis, Secretary
NFPA Standards Council
National Fire Protection Association
1 Batterymarch Park
Quincy, MA 02169

Email: dbellis@nfpa.org

Thank you for taking action!

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