By Jennifer Tangeman and John Dempsey
LOGANSPORT — Nearly 1,000 employees were safely evacuated and no injuries were reported following a large fire Friday morning at a Tyson Food plant in Logansport.
Slaughter operations at the plant were temporarily suspended as a result of the blaze, the cause of which is under investigation.
“We are now assessing the damage to determine what repairs are needed,” Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson said Friday night. “We expect to resume processing Saturday and Monday. ... We hope to resume slaughtering next week.”
Tyson employs 1,900 at the plant, but Mickelson did not know how many employees would be affected by the shutdown of the slaughter area.
Firefighters were dispatched to the facility on the city’s southwest side at 9:07 a.m. and found heavy black smoke coming from the southeast corner of the building.
Assistant chief Dave Huff immediately called for assistance from Monticello and Peru fire departments and all available off-duty firefighters.
The fire began in the hog singer area of the kill room and blew up to the roof, spreading from there to the smokestacks and roof vents, Huff stated in his report. Although some roof insulation materials caught fire, the roof itself, which is made of concrete, never got hot enough to crack or break up, said Huff.
“We had to peel back an awful lot of that roof. That made it tough,” he said.
He did not have an estimate of monetary damage to the facility, but said the physical damage is believed to be extensive.
“It’s hard to determine how much structural damage there might be,” he said. “There was some bowing of beams.”
Huff cordoned off a large area inside the plant for safety reasons. Electricity and natural gas supplies to the plant were shut off.
The structure and machinery inside sustained heavy smoke, water and heat damage, the assistant chief reported.
“Firefighters worked hard for five and a half hours to put it out,” he said. “The cause is unknown at this time. The fire investigators have looked over the scene and Tyson maintenance crews are cleaning and studying the damage and cause.”
The American Red Cross responded, bringing blankets to help keep employees warm while they waited outside the facility. Eight Logansport school buses were also sent to the plant to offer some shelter to employees, many of whom came out of the plant with their equipment wearing only short-sleeved shirts, according to Logansport Police Chief A.J. Rozzi.
Officials from Tyson’s corporate offices in Arkansas flew to Logansport to survey the damage Friday afternoon, according to Huff.
