Firefighters battle a blaze Wednesday morning that destroyed a makeshift chicken coop on Coal Hollow Road in Buffalo Township. The fire was first reported shortly after 9:30 a.m. to the structure, an older mobile home that reportedly housed 19 chickens and two pigs. The pigs escaped and were not injured, according to an officer for the Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Company. Firefighters saved three of the 19 chickens.

BUFFALO TWP — Two pigs escaped unharmed, but 16 chickens died after fire struck a makeshift coop Wednesday morning in Buffalo Township.

The fire was reported shortly after 9:30 a.m. at 200 Coal Hollow Road off Freeport Road.

Flames were coming from the porch and a front room of the structure when crews arrived, said Kip Johnston, captain of the Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Company.

“It was being used as a chicken coop,” he said of the building, an old mobile home used to house the animals.

Johnston said firefighters saved three of the 19 chickens which all were kept in one room of the building.

The pigs got out on their own and were close by as firefighters shot water into the building.

Johnston said the cause of the fire was unknown.

Crews said the building had no utilities connected to it, but a wood-burning stove was outside the building.

Patrick and Joyce Bolte own the property where the coop sat, according to property tax records.

No one answered the door to the nearby home, and calls made later to the home were not answered.

The Saxonburg, Sarver and Herman volunteer fire departments assisted at the scene.