Fundraiser for treatment of hens that survived Sunday's Co Tyrone lorry fire nears £10,000
A fund launched to help a rescue group treating hens injured in Sunday night's lorry blaze in Co Tyrone, has raised almost £10,000.
Several thousand birds are believed to have perished in the fire which closed the Benburb Road, Moy, for three hours on Sunday evening.
Members of the Northern Ireland Battery Hen Rescue and Re-homing Group based at Crumlin, Co Antrim, managed to save more than 40 hens and are continuing to search the area.
They put out an appeal on Monday afternoon for funds to help them treat the birds and launched a Gofundme page.
On Monday they had set a target of £4,000 but, thanks to the generosity of the community, this figure was quickly exceeded.
In a post on its Facebook page, the group thanked local vets who worked throughout the night with the crates of live hens at the scene, assessing them and humanely putting to sleep the ones "too sick to recover."
Treatment of the birds is continuing and the group is hopeful that most of the hens, although traumatized by the fire, will make a full recovery.
The Gofundme page can be found here