Ohio

‘Catastrophic’ Ohio farm fire kills 6,000 hogs and pigs, officials say

Published

3 weeks ago

February 27, 2026

‘Catastrophic’ Ohio farm fire kills 6,000 hogs and pigs, officials say

A wind-swept blaze at an Ohio hog farm complex caused “catastrophic” damage and left thousands of pigs dead, fire officials said, marking another devastating barn inferno contributing to the deaths of millions of animals in recent years.

The massive fire occurred on Wednesday, Feb. 25, at Fine Oak Farms in Union Township, Madison County, located west of Ohio’s capital of Columbus, according to the Central Townships Joint Fire District. Fire crews received a report of a barn fire shortly before 12 p.m. local time.

The incident was later upgraded to a commercial structure fire after Chief Brian Bennington observed a “large column of smoke visible from a distance” and requested additional resources. Multiple local fire departments, along with several other emergency agencies, were called to the scene.

“What our crews encountered upon arrival was a very difficult and heartbreaking incident,” Bennington said in a statement on Feb. 26.

The fire chief described the facility as a large farm complex used for hog production consisting of five large agricultural buildings, including four that housed about 7,500 hogs. When crews arrived at the scene, they found two of the barns engulfed in flames, Bennington said.

Crews were challenged by windy conditions that significantly impacted fire suppression efforts, according to Bennington. Three barns were destroyed in the fire, and about 6,000 hogs and pigs were killed.

Firefighters saved one barn and about 1,500 hogs, the fire chief added. No injuries were reported in the incident.

Bennington highlighted the assistance of the farming community throughout Madison and Clark counties, as multiple farmers responded with water trucks to help with water supply efforts. “Rural Ohio’s agricultural community is tight-knit, and they truly step up when one of their own is in need,” he said.

The incident remains under investigation, and the Ohio State Fire Marshal’s Office will determine the fire’s cause and origin. Bennington said there is no suspicion of arson and no ongoing threat to the public at this time.

‘Rapidly changing fire behavior conditions’

Heavy smoke from the fire could be seen for miles, and Bennington said first-arriving units were met with fire conditions coming from the opposite side of the hog farm complex.

The fire chief noted that the incident required extensive water-shuttle operations due to rural water-supply limitations in the area. Crews attempted to cut the fire off by deploying multiple handlines and using an aerial device, but “faced extremely challenging conditions throughout the incident,” according to Bennington.

Sustained winds of about 20 mph with gusts up to 35 mph accelerated the fire’s spread, Bennington said. The high winds made it “extremely difficult” to contain forward fire progression and created “rapidly changing fire behavior conditions” across the agricultural complex, he added.

After about four to five hours, the fire was contained by fire personnel from four different counties, according to the fire chief.

“Unfortunately, the fire resulted in catastrophic damage to the business,” Bennington said in an earlier statement on Feb. 25. “A significant portion of the agricultural structures were destroyed.”

Latest major fire to impact an Ohio hog farm

The incident at Fine Oak Farms is the latest major fire to cause significant damage to an Ohio hog farm in recent years.

In August 2024, about 1,100 pigs were killed in Versailles, a village about 50 miles northwest of Dayton, Ohio, according to data from the nonprofit Animal Welfare Institute. In March 2022, about 2,000 hogs died in a barn fire at Kenneth Scholl Hog Farm in Brown Township, just west of Columbus.

Before the fire at Fine Oak Farms, the Animal Welfare Institute reported that other barn fires in Ohio this year killed 162 sheep, horses, cows, chickens, and other animals.

Hundreds of thousands of animals killed in barn fires each year

Data from the Animal Welfare Institute shows that hundreds of thousands of animals are killed in barn fires across the country each year. Since 2013, over 9 million farm animals have been killed in barn fires, according to the organization.

As of Feb. 26, the Animal Welfare Institute reported that 118,738 farm animals have died in U.S. barn fires this year, including the incident at Fine Oak Farms. The majority of farm animals killed were chickens in separate incidents in North Carolina and Georgia in January, and another incident in Missouri earlier this month.

“Most fatal barn fires occurred in colder states, particularly the Upper Midwest and the Northeast. New York, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois had the highest number of barn fires, respectively,” according to the organization. “The amount of cold weather a state experienced appeared to be a greater factor in the prevalence of barn fires than the intensity of a state’s animal agriculture production.”

In an updated report on farm animal deaths due to barn fires in 2025, the Animal Welfare Institute said more than 2.53 million farm animals were killed in barn fires from 2022 to 2024. The organization noted that the high death toll was “driven primarily” by fires at large operations that housed several thousand to over 1 million farm animals.

The majority of deaths in these incidents during that period, over 98%, were farmed birds, such as chickens and turkeys, according to the Animal Welfare Institute. But in 2023, a massive fire at a west Texas dairy farm became the single deadliest event involving livestock in the state’s history and the deadliest cattle fire in America in at least a decade.

18,000 head of cattle perished in the fire at the South Fork Dairy farm near Dimmitt, Texas. At the time, Roger Malone, who is the former mayor of Dimmitt, called the incident “mind-boggling.”

“I don’t think it’s ever happened before around here. It’s a real tragedy,” Malone said.

Contributing: Rick Jervis, USA TODAY; Shahid Meighan, Columbus Dispatch

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Ohio

Miami (Ohio) cruises past SMU to roll in March Madness First Four matchup

Published

11 hours ago

March 19, 2026

Press Room

Miami (Ohio) cruises past SMU to roll in March Madness First Four matchup

DAYTON, Ohio — Eian Elmer scored 22 points and Miami (Ohio) beat SMU 89-79 on Wednesday night in the First Four for its first NCAA Tournament victory in 27 years.

Elmer went 6 of 9 from 3-point range as the 11th-seeded RedHawks (32-1), undefeated during the regular season, advanced in the Midwest Region to play No. 6 seed Tennessee on Friday in Philadelphia.

Brant Byers added 19 points, including four 3s, and Luke Skaljac had 17 points for Miami, making its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2007. The RedHawks finished 16 of 41 from 3-point range.

“The message I gave our guys before the game was they should leave no doubt with who the more attacking team was,” Miami (Ohio) coach Travis Steele said. “I thought that was very evident from the jump ball all the way to the end of the game.”

Jaden Toombs led SMU (20-14) with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Jaron Pierre Jr. scored 18 points and Boopie Miller had 15 for the Mustangs, who reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time in nine years. They’re still looking for their first victory in the event since 1988.

Miami went 31-0 during a captivating regular season — the only Division I team to go unbeaten in 2025-26 and just the nation’s eighth undefeated regular season in the past 50 years.

But the RedHawks lost their MAC Tournament opener to UMass, putting their NCAA Tournament hopes in jeopardy because of a schedule that ranked 339th in overall strength and featured no Quadrant 1 games.

Some analysts and critics questioned whether they belonged in the field with an at-large bid, but Miami silenced some skeptics Wednesday with a rousing victory over an Atlantic Coast Conference opponent.

“We’re not really focused on proving whether we belong, honestly,” Elmer said. “Everybody in the locker room thinks we do. I just think if anything we’re just going to go out there, play our hardest and have fun.”

Elmer had 14 points and went 4 of 6 from 3-point range in the first half. Byers hit back-to-back 3s to give Miami an 11-point lead.

“They put five guys on the court that can shoot the 3, so they’re hard to guard,” SMU coach Andy Enfield said. “We outscored them in the paint 46-20 tonight, which was our game plan to really try to score the ball in the lane.”

SMU missed its first seven 3-point attempts before Pierre connected with 7:02 remaining in the first half. The Mustangs went 5 of 19 from long distance.

Almar Atlason hit a pair of 3s to give the RedHawks a 63-50 advantage early in the second half. He scored 12 points.

Skaljac’s transition 3 extended Miami’s lead to 71-57.

SMU had a size advantage, but foul trouble negated some of that. Mustangs 7-foot-2 center Samet Yigitoglu fouled out with 1:31 remaining. He finished with eight points and six rebounds.

The undersized RedHawks matched SMU with 35 rebounds and 17 second-chance points.

“Listen, our group is uber-confident,” Steele said. “We know we belong. I told our guys afterwards, man, I’m happy, but the job is not finished. We want to continue to advance in this thing.”

<br />

Magic man

Peter Suder had the assist of the night when he gathered an outlet pass from Skaljac and bounced a pass across the paint to Elmer, who caught it and scored with one hand to put the RedHawks ahead 20-13.

“That’s like some March magic,” Skaljac said.

Suder had six assists, but that one caught Elmer by surprise.

“I was expecting a lob,” he said. “Peter was running full speed so I was just trailing. He made an amazing pass, and I got lucky, honestly.”

Steele hopes the RedHawks’ victory will earn more respect for mid-major programs.

“I mean, we had to basically be perfect in the whole regular season to get an at-large,” he said. “There’s a lot of good teams. Those teams can compete with anybody, but they don’t get the opportunities in the regular season to put them in a position to where they can get an at-large bid.”

With the First Four in Dayton, fewer than 50 miles from Miami’s campus, the crowd was decidedly in the RedHawks’ favor.

“Home game for Miami,” Enfield said. “They probably had 12,000 fans here, it felt like. So they were loud and they fed off the energy.”

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Ohio

Afroman sued by Ohio deputies over music videos showing raid of his home, says ‘I got freedom of speech’

Published

23 hours ago

March 18, 2026

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Afroman sued by Ohio deputies over music videos showing raid of his home, says ‘I got freedom of speech’

A defiant rapper testified on Tuesday that he exercised free speech when he released music videos featuring images of Ohio deputies raiding his home, saying any suffering they claim in a lawsuit is due to “their mistake.”

Several Adams County sheriff’s deputies are suing Afroman, claiming they were needlessly harmed by music videos, most notably “Lemon Pound Cake,” which included security camera footage taken in 2022 when they served a search warrant looking for drugs at the performer’s home.

None were found and charges were never filed against the “Because I Got High” rapper, who was born Joseph Foreman.

Afroman took the witness stand wearing an American flag-patterned suit and said his actions are protected under the First Amendment.

“I got freedom of speech,” he told jurors. “After they run around my house with guns, kicked down my door, I got the right to kick a can in my backyard, use my freedom of speech, turn my bad times into a good time.”

“Yes I do, and I think I’m a sport for doing so because I don’t go to their house, kick down their doors, flip them off on their surveillance cameras, then try to play the victim and sue them,” he said.

The rapper said any hardships suffered by the deputies should be pinned on law enforcement.

“(This is all of) their fault for coming in my house in the first place,” the 51-year-old artist testified.

“So if they hadn’t come in my house, their children wouldn’t be saying nothing. None of this would be going on if they had did their research and did things right. So all of this is their fault, and now they want to sue me for their mistake.”

Asked if there’s anything that could “change your mind” about his creative actions, an indignant Afroman put it all back on law enforcement.

“Is there anything that can change my mind about the fact that they shouldn’t have been at my house in the first place?” Afroman rhetorically said.

“Is there anything that can change my mind about how my money shouldn’t have been touched in the first place? No.”

The title of song and video at the center of the lawsuite made light of one deputy who came through the busted door and seemed to take particular interest in a lemon loaf sitting under sitting under a cake glass in Afroman’s kitchen.

“The Adams County Sheriff kicked down my door,” according to Afroman’s song.

“Then I heard the glass break. They found no kidnapping victims. Just some lemon pound cake. Mama’s lemon pound cake. It tastes so nice. It made the sheriff wanna put down his gun. And cut him a slice.”

The “Lemon Pound Cake” video has been viewed more than 3.1 million times on YouTube.

In the song “Randy Walters is a Son of a Bitch,” the singer’s lyrics imply an extramarital affair between defendant and the wife of plaintiff Sgt. Randy Walters.

“When my daughter came home and advised me that she was getting messed with at school because apparently her mom is having sex with Afroman,” Walters told jurors.

“It’s horrible. It’s hard when your job that you’re doing which affects your family with affects you.”

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Ohio

Employee crushed to death in horror industrial accident after press machine unexpectedly turns on

Published

1 day ago

March 18, 2026

Press Room

Employee crushed to death in horror industrial accident after press machine unexpectedly turns on

An Ohio Ford employee is dead after being trapped and crushed by a malfunctioning industrial machine at a company plant this week.

The incident unfolded around 9:45 a.m. on Monday, when authorities were called to Ford’s Sharonville plant on E. Sharon Road regarding reports of an industrial accident, according to FOX 19.

Upon arriving at the plant, authorities reportedly encountered a press machine that was undergoing routine maintenance when it malfunctioned, causing it to turn on and pin the worker.

First responders worked to perform life-saving measures on the worker once he was pulled from the machine before transporting him to Bethesda North Hospital.

The worker was later pronounced dead at the hospital, according to FOX 19.

The Hamilton County Coroner’s Office reportedly identified the victim as 61-year-old Gregory Knopf.

“There were multiple witnesses to this incident and it is considered an industrial accident at this time,” Sharonville police said, according to FOX 19.

The incident reportedly remains under investigation by the Hamilton County Coroner’s Office, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and Ford Motor Company’s administrative staff.

“A tragic incident today resulted in the death of an employee at Sharonville Transmission Plant,” a Ford spokesperson said in a statement to WCPO.

“We are in contact with the family of the individual and we’re working to support them through this difficult time. Our deepest condolences are with the friends and family of our team member. Counseling services are available for our employees at the plant. Safety is our highest priority and we are investigating the incident. We would also like to thank our community first responders.”

Ford Motor Company and the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

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