A fire at a Perthshire pheasant farm killed birds worth almost £10,000.
The alarm was raised at West Myrerigg farm, near Coupar Angus ,on Thursday evening after a blaze broke out in one of the 120 sheds on the site.
Glenshee Pheasantries employees on site rushed to battle the flames and were able to prevent it affecting any other shed, but were unable to save the one on fire or any of the birds trapped inside.
One cause being investigated is whether the birds were scared by a rodent, which may have caused them to fly upwards into a heat lamp.
The farm’s owner Stephen Andrews, who has been rearing game birds since 1983, said the 14ft by 24ft shed would have contained around 2,400 birds
He said: “We sat down for some tea at around 8.30pm and 10 minutes later the shed was engulfed in flames.
“We live on site so within 10 minutes we had more or less brought it under control.
“The gas in the sheds next to it was switched off to prevent it spreading.
“There was six gas cannisters on fire, but none of them exploded. They were venting – flames coming out of the top – but the fire service were happy to just let them burn out.
“We are not 100% sure what caused it but it’s possible that a mouse or a rat has scared the birds and they have flown up into the gas lamp.
“We has been in that shed just an hour before and there was no signs that anything was wrong.”
The shed contained four-week-old pheasants, who were due to be removed from under the heat lamps next week and be sent to customers in around three weeks time.
With each bird being sold for £4 and the shed costing around £3,000 Mr Andrews, a former firefighter, estimates his total loss to be more than £12,500.
He said: “It’s a disaster at the end of the day.
“Obviously we have insurance but i’m not concerned about the financial effect, I’m more concerned about the birds.
“We want to work out what caused the fire so that we can prevent it happening again,
“The irony is that they go off heat at five weeks, so it was very unfortunate.”
He praised the quick response of fire crews from Blairgowrie and Coupar Angus, which he said was “spot on”.
Although an eyewitness had initially reported that the sheds were heated with Calor gas cannisters, Mr Andrews and a spokesman for Calor Gas confirmed this was not the case and that the gas was from another supplier.
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said: “We received a call just before 8.40pm. We mobilised two appliances from Blairgowrie and one from Coupar Angus.
“There was propane cylinders alight and venting.”
