2. Imperial Foods was a food processing plant. In the plant they processed chicken
pieces for restaurants. Around 90 employees were on each shift on a normal day.
Most of the building was set up without proper barriers to prevent fire from
spreading throughout the entire building. There were many doors and loading
docks but were not used for exits for anyone but maintenance workers, they
weren’t properly designed to be exits.
On September 3, 1991 around 8:15 A.M. a fire started in the Imperial Foods
Plant in Hamlet, North Carolina. Authorities say it was due to a hydraulic line
that had ruptured and was ignited by a natural gas-fueled cooker that was used
to prepare the chicken. This line was repaired by a worker not long before the
incident, it should have been done by a trained professional and then this
probably wouldn’t have happened. There was an automatic fire extinguisher
above the cooker but it was not inspected and it was not known if it was in
working condition that day. With that being said, this company did not have an
inspection done in the 11 years that they were running.
There were no fire alarms or sprinklers in the building and most of the doors
were locked, so the employees had to try and kick them open. Management
locked the doors because of fear that the employees would steal the chickens. The
only reason that the fire department was notified is because someone got out of
the building and drove to the fire station to tell them. The fire men made it to the
scene about 12 minutes after it occurred and already had 3 deaths and 11
injuries that they needed to attend too. A total of 25 people were killed and 54
injured. This was North Carolina’s worst industrial disaster.
The doors were not marked well with lights to be able to see with all of the thick
black smoke. Recommendations after the incident say that plants with high
humidity should have lights above the door and by the bottom of the doors so
that people can see when they are near the floor hiding from the smoke.
Other recommendations are as follows:
o Food processing plants should keep the different cooking areas partitioned
so that in this case, the fire could have been contained to one room
o Maintenance should be performed by trained professionals
o Emergency shut off valves on equipment
o State/federal inspectors should be cross-trained
o “worry-free” communication so workers won’t be afraid to say something
about unsafe working environments
o Emergency exit drills as industrial policies
o Fire extinguishers placed throughout the plant
3. The Owner of Imperial Foods was fined $808,150 for having locked doors and
inadequate emergency lighting and received a 20 year prison sentence but served
just under 4 years. North Carolina had never had a fine so severe in their history.
Fourteen new laws were put into place after this fire, which include provisions
for whistle blowers and enforcement of fire codes. OSHA also increased the
number of inspectors to 114 from only 60 and provided an additional $8.4
million to help improve worker safety.
Issues
Imperial Foods owed their workers a safe employment environment for them to
work in. They totally missed that boat! Even before they opened the doors they
did not have it inspected, the place could have blown up the first day of
operations.
Of the 25 that died, 19 were single mothers of young children. Forty-Nine
children ended up being orphaned. One man actually took his own life because
his wife past in the fire and she was the only woman for him, so there was no
point in living.
There was no justice for these families, money cannot replace a person. It seems
like every time a company tries to “pull the wool over your eyes” it ends in a
disaster. If only they would have spent a little more money for inspections and
proper maintenance, all these lives could have been saved.
Some of the survivors are still dealing with scares left from the incident. One
woman had a toxicology report done and it showed that she was exposed to 100
different toxins in the fire. She was stepped on by other people trying to get out
and it completely messed up her back to where she will never walk again. If the
owners would not have pad-locked the fire doors (as shown below), all these
people could have got out safely.
