This seems too weird to be a coincidence, no? So many incidences at food processing plants the last 18 months.
Fires at Food Processing Plants
- Thread starter RonBurgundy
- Start date
It would be interesting to compare those statistics with similar periods over time, but it does seem very odd. My son worked briefly at an ADM plant, and they drilled into them that there was really dangerous explosive fire potential in their grain processing.
Hot pockets plant?? Guessing it was someone who had one the first time and burnt their mouth on a untasty brick they call a hot pocket.
Leaning into my P&C insurance background here. Something that does jump out is that there have been 16 already in 2022, 6 in 2021, zero for 2020 and 1 in 2019. There are some outliers here - 2019 and 2020 could have been extremely lucky, while 2022 decidedly less so.
I do have some questions:
I do have some questions:
- Is this list national and comprehensive?
- Any new reporting guidelines that started in 2021? I'd think even a small fire would require extensive cleanup/cleaning for a sterile environment.
Wonder if worker turnover plays a part? Maintenance on machines may he lacking.
Fire is what destroyed the largest employer in my hometown of Albert Lea - Wilson/Farmstead, a meat packing plant - many years ago. It was union, and back in the day a man could work there and make enough to raise a big family.
A tornado wiped out our local family owned meat locker/ butcher. A CEO from Wilson/ Farmstead asked them, "How do you start a tornado?"
Probably owned by cheapskates who refuse to fix/upgrade issues with the building/equipment.
My grandpa worked his whole 50 year career at Wilson in Cherokee. Then a couple years after he retired they cut his pension and left him hanging the last 15 years of his life. Not a fan.
Side note, I've been told Tyson bought that Wilson factory in Cherokee and is just holding it. Last I had heard they were refusing to sell the facility, presumably to prevent any competitor from acquiring it. Cherokee was already struggling to stay afloat without Tyson hamstringing the job market...
Are there any respectable food processing companies?!
Link? Source? Corroborating evidence for your conspiracy theory?
That place was nasty and no community support from it. Austin and Albert lea couldn’t be much different although they had the same industry as their backbone. Mower county has one of the largest foundations in the area confined to its border and building it up, Freeborn is just getting nastier.
It might take a bit, but the U.S. Chemical Safety Board has a REALLY interesting YouTube account where they recreate the issues that lead to industrial accidents. Maybe some of these food processing things will get recreated.
Gotta know what the criteria for this list to make any judgements. I know the Taylor Farms fire was pretty serious, but we’re the rest? Any “Fire” needs to get reported no matter how insignificant to processing. My thoughts are that this stuff just tends to happen in manufacturing, especially with untrained workforce which is becoming more of the norm these days with such low unemployment and high turnover
Tyson held the town hostage until 2019. They shut the plant down and 450 people lost their jobs in 2014. Some food group tried to run it in 2019 and ran out of money… Lopez foods bought it for 5-6 million to get it running with 50 ish employees. I would like to see it get back to 450 ish… the town went on rapid decline in 2014. Businesses can’t stay open long, the only true department store is Dollar General. Source: grew up in Cherokee for 19 years, and I’m currently visiting family there right now. Haha.
