Introduction
The Hamlet Chicken Processing Plant fire was a disaster that occurred at the Imperial Chicken Processing Plant in Hamlet, NC. The city of Hamlet was known for its large chicken plant, which employed many of the town’s residents. However, this source of pride for the small town quickly turned into a source of shame after a rupture of a hydraulic line caused a fire that killed 25 workers and left the plant in shambles.
The disaster garnered national attention because of the lack of accessible emergency exits and safety measures available to the workers in the plant. All of deaths that occurred in the fire could have been prevented had there been appropriate safety measures taken beforehand. Victims blamed the management at the Imperial plant for blocking exits because they cared more for their capital goods than the safety of their own workers.
The practices of the Imperial Chicken Processing Plant were directly linked to the cause of the fire, causing some to not only view this event as a disaster, but also as a crime. After the disaster the tensions between the management and the victims began to define the wounds caused by the fire. The Hamlet disaster was not an industrial accident, but an inevitable disaster due to the capitalistic nature of the 1980s and 1990s in North Carolina.
Background
The City of Hamlet
The city Hamlet was incorporated in 1897, at which point it was already established as a railroad town, which had been built in 1870.[1] The railroad went from Raleigh to Augusta, GA, and it was through the influence of an early settler of Hamlet that the railroad was built through the town. In 1936, the town was deemed the “Hub of the Seaboard” because of its busy railroad community.[2] However, as time progressed, certain railroads merged companies, leaving some tracks empty.[3] In the 1980s, tracks were removed to accommodate a growing diesel shop. This period of time decreased the power of the railroad business, thus allowing for industrialization to increase the number of factories in the area.[4] The state ranked first among all the states for the number of new manufacturing plants opened by 1987.[5]
The Imperial Chicken Processing Plant
The Imperial Chicken Processing Plant was purchased in 1980, around the time when the town was experiencing a decrease in railroad activity. Previously, the plant was used for other food product operations.[6] The building was a standard, one story brick and metal structure that was designed to have three surface areas (i.e. floors and walls) that were conducive to work with food products and thus could be washed down. The plant had about 200 workers, 90 of which worked on any particular shift.[7] This large amount of employees made the plant one of the largest employers in the town. The day of the fire, there were 90 people on shift.[8]
Most of the rooms in the plant were cooled or refrigerated in order to keep the meat being processed sanitary. The only day to day contents in the plant that were deemed flammable were the shipping boxes and the wood pallets. Overall, the plant’s fire risk, due to the cool temperatures and the small list of day-to-day flammable objects, was considered small.[9] The use of the hydraulic fluid in the plant was never considered into the fire risk.
The Fire
The Start of the Fire
The Hamlet Chicken Processing Plant fire occurred in Hamlet, North Carolina on September 3rd, 1991. Due to a rupture of a hydraulic line near a deep fryer, 25 people perished, which resulted in one of the biggest industrial disasters the United States had ever seen. The rupture created an explosion and subsequently a fireball that destroyed the plant.[1] After the fire, it was released that the processing plant had not be inspected in its 11 years of operations. This, combined with workers complaints of blocked and obstructed exits, created a controversial discussion on human rights in regards to the work force. Many workers disclosed that the doors were “routinely locked to keep employees from stealing chicken nuggets”.[2] Along with the 25 workers that perished, 56 workers and 11 firemen were injured.[3]
The fire started because of rupture of the hydraulic line, which in turn caused the fireball that incinerated the Imperial Plant. This failure was due to “unsafe practice of repairing hoses carrying hydraulic fuel while continuing to maintain cooking temperatures with gas flames under large vats of oil”. [4] The hose in question, which carried highly flammable hydraulic fluid, ruptured when being repaired at the plant. Under usual circumstances, this would not have caused a disaster because the cooking vats would not have been in use due to fire hazard. However, because the management at the Imperial Plant wanted to “minimize down-time” when making their product, the vats were left on during hydraulic line repairs.[5] There were also no backups in case of failures to the system. The plant had no automatic shutoff in case of a hydraulic line rupture, and there was only one fire extinguisher within reach of the fire.[6] Thus, the rupture caused highly flammable fluid to spread to the fire under the vats, creating a large-scale fire in the plant. The official statement of the cause of the fire from the Committee on Education and Labor goes as follows:
The cause of the fire was determined to be the ignition of hydraulic oil from a ruptured line only a few feet from a natural-gas-fueled cooker used in preparation of the chicken. Investigators determined that during a repair operation, the incoming hydraulic line separated from its coupling at a point approximately 60 inches above the concrete floor and began to discharge the fluid at a high pressure. This high pressure and subsequent flow resulted in the hydraulic fluid being sprayed against the floor and onto the nearby cooker. Ignition of the fuel was immediate; likely from the nearby gas burners…The intense fire also impinged upon a natural gas regulator (located directly above the ruptured hydraulic line) on the supply line to the burners which soon failed and added to the fuels being consumed.[7]
After the fire broke out, workers were left looking for emergency exits seeing as they had very limited ways in which they could attempt to extinguish the fire. Shortly after the fire ensued, the power to the plant switched off, leaving the employees searching the dark, further limiting their chances of finding exits.[8] The fumes became so strong that at times it only took two breaths for the workers to faint from the toxic fumes. A worker Cleo Reddick recounted that “The smoke and fumes were so strong I kept my mouth closed…I felt the need to swallow and I did… And then I fell out”.[9] Other workers started to trample the bodies of workers who had fallen to the floor due to the toxic fumes. Another worker Bobby Quick helped break down a door to form an escape path outside.[10] As time went on, the fire department was notified after many failed attempts due to damaged telephone lines in the plant, and they managed to open exits to workers trapped inside. However, many workers were not able to escape soon enough and died of asphyxiation.[11]
The Aftermath
After the fire workers came forward blaming the plant for blocking emergency exits that could have saved many people from injury and death.[1] After news spread that the plant had never been inspected during its 11 years of operation, a host of reforms entered the state legislator. Less than a year after the fire, “the North Carolina General Assembly passed a host of new worker safety laws”. [2] Also, the owners were fined a total of $808,000, which was the largest fine to ever be given in North Carolina at the time.[3] Along with the fine, Emmet Roe, the owner of the plant, was charged with multiple counts of manslaughter. He plead guilty and served 4 years in jail.[4]
While some of the workers received compensation for their injuries, for many it was not enough. Medical aliments ate up the money received from the settlement. The survivors were affected by a plethora of disorders, ranging from upper respiratory issues to depression and PTSD.[5] Bobby Quick, who kicked down a door to help people escape from the factory during the fire, suffered from 7 ruptured disks in his back as a result of his heroic deed.[6] No one escaped the Hamlet fire without being changed in some way. Even residents of the town who were not at the factory the day of the fire were affected, because many friends perished and families were torn apart.
The Causes
Southern Capitalism
[1] Kilborn, Peter T. "North Carolina is Told to Improve Safety Role." The New York Times “US History in Context”.[New York] 9 Jan. 1992: n. pag. Print.
[2] Haygood, Wil. "Still Burning." 4.
[3] Kilborn, Peter T. "North Carolina is Told to Improve Safety Role." 1.
[4] Haygood, Wil. "Still Burning." 4.
[5] ibid,. 6.
[6] idem.
[1] Aulette, Judy Root, and Raymond Michalowski. "Fire in Hamlet: A Case Study of a State-Corporate Crime."
[2] ibid,.
[3] Haygood, Wil. "Still Burning." The Washington Post [Washington D.C.] 10 Nov. 2002: n. pag. Print.
[4] Aulette, Judy Root, and Raymond Michalowski. "Fire in Hamlet: A Case Study of a State-Corporate Crime." 197.
[5] ibid,. 197.
[6] ibid,. 197.
[7] Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives. 1991. Hearing on H.R.3160, Comprehensive OHSA Reform Act, and the fire at the Imperial Food Products Plant in Hamlet, North Carolina Serial No. 102-47, September 12, Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.
[8] Haygood, Wil. "Still Burning." 2.
[9] ibid,. 2.
[10] ibid,. 4.
[11] idem.
[1] Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives. 1991. Hearing on H.R.3160, Comprehensive OHSA Reform Act, and the fire at the Imperial Food Products Plant in Hamlet, North Carolina Serial No. 102-47, September 12, Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.
[2] Haygood, Wil. "Still Burning." 2.
[3] ibid,. 2.
[4] ibid,. 4.
[5] idem.
[1] Aulette, Judy Root, and Raymond Michalowski. "Fire in Hamlet: A Case Study of a State-Corporate Crime."
[2] ibid,.
[3] Haygood, Wil. "Still Burning." The Washington Post [Washington D.C.] 10 Nov. 2002: n. pag. Print.
[4] Aulette, Judy Root, and Raymond Michalowski. "Fire in Hamlet: A Case Study of a State-Corporate Crime." 197.
[5] ibid,. 197.
[6] ibid,. 197.
[7] Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives. 1991. Hearing on H.R.3160, Comprehensive OHSA Reform Act, and the fire at the Imperial Food Products Plant in Hamlet, North Carolina Serial No. 102-47, September 12, Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.
[8] Haygood, Wil. "Still Burning." 2.
[9] ibid,. 2.
[10] ibid,. 4.
[11] idem.
[1] "History of Hamlet." City History. City of Hamlet, n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2014. < http://www.hamletnc.us/cityhistory.html>
[2] idem.
[3] Washburn, Mark. "Love of Railroads Spans the Carolinas." CharlotteObserver.com. The Charlotte Observer, 26 May 2013. Web. 9 Dec. 2014. <http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/05/26/4065919/love-of-railroads-spans-the-carolinas.html#.VIdFSUt9cds>.
[4] idem.
[5] Aulette, Judy Root, and Raymond Michalowski. "Fire in Hamlet: A Case Study of a State-Corporate Crime." Political Crime in Contemporary America: A Critical Approach. Ed. Kenneth D. Tunnell. New York: Garland Publishing Inc., 1993. 171-206. Print.
[6] Yates, Jack. United States Fire Administration: Report to Congress - Fiscal Year 1991. Emmitsburg, MD: Administration, 1992. United States Fire Administration. Web. 9 Dec. 2014. <http://www.interfire.org/res_file/pdf/Tr-057.pdf>.
[7] idem.
[8] idem.
[9] idem.