A large chicken house caught fire on Sunday morning off of Dowd Road outside of West End, killing tens of thousands of chickens. Fire units were dispatched to the 4900 block of Dowd Road after 7 a.m.

Officials told Moore County News the chicken house was fully involved when they arrived. Multiple fire departments from across Moore County, and a unit from Biscoe were requested to the commercial first alarm fire.

It took firefighters approximately 45 minutes to bring the flames under control, and they remained on scene hitting hot spots for hours after. Two nearby chicken houses were saved by firefighters.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Editors note: It was originally reported to Moore County News that 40,000 chickens were lost in the fire. This was an early estimate from fire officials as the fire was still ongoing and they were still gathering information. That number was corrected later to anywhere from 20,000 to 25,000 once the fire was extinguished and further information could be gathered.