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Slaughterhouse destroyed in blaze

A slaughterhouse in Groton, a well-known family business, was destroyed by a four-alarm fire early Sunday morning.

The T-shaped facility at Blood Farm, which houses a smokehouse and meat processing plant, was a total loss, said Dick Blood, 55, son of the farm’s 90-year-old owner, Barney Blood.

“When I saw the flames coming out of that building, I said ‘Oh my God,’ ” Dick Blood said by telephone Sunday night.

He said he has worked at the farm his entire life. He is not sure if his father, fifth-generation owner of the business, will try to rebuild.

“I hope he rebuilds. I don’t know if he’s still in shock,” said Blood. “But I want to go on. It’s all I’ve ever done.”

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The town’s Fire Department said in a statement that the fire at 94 West Main St. broke out at about 2 a.m. Sunday.

No injuries were reported, the statement said. The state fire marshal’s office is helping investigate the cause of the fire.

Blood said he did not have any idea how the blaze started.

Between 35 and 40 firefighters, some from Ayer, Townsend, Lunenburg, and Pepperell, were on scene trying to extinguish the blaze, the Groton Fire Department said.

Blood said he went to the property about an hour after the fire broke out.

“The firefighters did all in their power to put it out but it was a total loss,” he said.

The two-story, 8,466-square-foot facility was built in 1971, according to online records with the town’s assessor’s department.

The Groton farm is just one of three businesses in Massachusetts with federal approval to slaughter animals, according to an inspection directory on the United States Department of Agriculture’s website. The others are in Athol and Sutton.


Matt Rocheleau can be
reached at matthew.rocheleau@globe.com.

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