Context: It's the Metro news. A giveaway advertising-funded 'newspaper' that you pick up for free on buses and is handed out for free on the streets in UK.
The chickens died from heatstroke due to ventilation computer malfunctioning. They weren’t actually “boiled” alive, i.e. in water.
So there was an alarm for barn temperature but not for the ventilation system itself? I can’t think of any industrial system that doesn’t raise an alarm upon failure.
I have a little experience here and the hatcheries tend to be family owned and when an incubator breaks they have to fix it rural America style, there's not enough volume to justify service techs