Close to 100 chickens killed in Thermal fire

A fire killed about 100 chickens and burned their enclosures, palm trees and around a half-acre of brush in Thermal early Wednesday, a county fire department spokeswoman said.

The fire started for unknown reasons just before 3 a.m. in an outbuilding near the chicken coops in an agricultural area in the 60200 block of Harrison Street.

The blaze reached palm trees, brush and debris nearby before being contained at about 4:40 a.m., Riverside County Fire Department spokeswoman Jennifer Fuhrman said.

An estimated 200 chickens were saved, she said.