OCOEE, Fla. – Orange County Fire Rescue battled a fire at an egg processing plant and chicken house on an Ocoee urban farm on Tuesday.
The fire is at 10000 Mark Adams Road in Ocoee, just south of Clarcona Ocoee Road. The address is linked to Lake Meadow Naturals, an urban farm known for providing eggs and meat to businesses around Central Florida.
Sky 6 video shows smoke and chickens that were freed from the house at the farm during the fire.
https://t.co/73OMWw73at pic.twitter.com/ejXcbyuuIq
— OCFire Rescue (@OCFireRescue) May 23, 2023
Orange County Fire Rescue said the fire is now out. But it’s unknown if any chickens were lost in the fire.
In a Facebook post, Lake Meadow Naturals said due to the electrical fire, the business “will have to do a complete remediation of the egg processing room.”
“We apologize to any of our valued customers who may not have been able to patron of farm store earlier today,” the business said in the post. “As a part of the Ocoee community for over 20 years, we can’t thank all of you enough for reaching out with your concern for the farm’s well-being. That truly means the world to us. . We’d also like to thank our friends from the Ocoee Fire Department who showed up at moments notice.”
Lake Meadow Naturals has been a staple in the local food scene for the past two decades. According to its website, as of 2019, Lake Meadow Naturals supplies products to popular hotels and restaurants throughout the area like Prato in Winter Park, The Ritz-Carlton in Orlando, and the Hyatt Regency at the Orlando International Airport. Owner Dale Volkert was even interviewed on News 6′s Florida Foodie podcast in 2020.
“I feel terrible,” neighbor Russell Smedley said. “Wow, that’s pretty crazy I’m not going to lie.”
Smedley said his family comes to the farm often.
“I never thought that would catch on fire or that anything bad would happen in this area,” Smedley said.
The farm has also become a staple for Central Florida residents.
Mary Griffin said she has been going to Lake Meadow Naturals since her son was a toddler.
“My heart goes out to them because I know that they take such good care of their chickens,” Griffin said. “And it’s, like I said, very happy. And all the customers I’ve ever met going there, they love the place. I mean, it’s just it’s really good and a really good group of people.”
News 6 asked the owner of Lake Meadow for comment, but they declined the interview.
“We’ll be sure to update everyone on the rebuild of the damaged areas,” farm officials said on Facebook. “In the meantime, we are setting up a secondary egg processing facility to keep up with our happy hens who continue to produce eggs at a healthy rate.”
At this time, no injuries have been reported and it is not known if any chickens were harmed or eggs were damaged.
News 6 is working on getting more details. Stay with ClickOrlando.com for updates.
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