BOONEVILLE, Ark. (AP) - The Cargill meat packing plant was an economic
lifeline to this small west Arkansas town, a place where almost everyone worked
its lines or knew someone who did.
A fire and set of explosions that destroyed the plant Sunday may sever that
link to the city's 4,000 residents forever.
"They'll be applying for unemployment and food stamps" if the plant closes,
said Manuel Mann, 69, pastor of the Southside Assembly of God in Booneville.
"It's really going to hurt and this town is already hurting."
Firefighters were unable to fight the Sunday afternoon blaze because of
dangers posed by the estimated 88,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia stored at the
plant. The Cargill Meat Solutions plant had another 100,000 pounds of
nonflammable carbon dioxide, which is used in refrigeration systems, said Renee
Preslar, a spokeswoman with the state Department of Emergency Management.
Officials said dispatchers received the first emergency call about the fire
at 12:58 p.m. Sunday.
Workers "were doing some welding on some fans," Logan County emergency
manager Don Fairbanks said. "The welders had put their equipment up and turned
around and there was a fire."
As the fire grew, officials said a series of small explosions rattled the
150,000-square-foot plant, which consisted of metal-framed buildings. By late
Sunday afternoon, a hazardous materials team entered the smoldering plant to
check the gauges on the anhydrous ammonia tanks. They all read empty, said Tonya
Roberts, a spokeswoman for the emergency response effort.
"It either went up into the atmosphere or burned up," Roberts told reporters
at a news conference. "The piping from the tanks runs all throughout the plant,
so there are lots of places for it to leak or burn."
The leak prompted an evacuation of about 180 people in the town. Residents
of a nursing home and patients at the city's hospital were among those chased
from the area. No one was injured.
A witness said she heard the explosion while staying at a hotel near the
plant. Meredith Voges, 22, of Connecticut, called the scene chaotic.
"The whole factory was ablaze with black smoke flying into the air, plumes
of smoke," said Voges, in the area to shoot footage for a television program
about a Booneville school principal.
At least one fire still burned Sunday night at the plant, which produces
more than 2 million pounds of ground beef and steak a week. Cargill officials
did not offer a damage estimate, but Logan County Judge Edgar Holt estimated the
plant was worth more than $100 million before the fire.
"They just did a $40 million expansion and it's gone," Holt said.
Cargill Inc. has about 2,000 employees in Arkansas, according to a fact
sheet on its Web site. Mark Klein, a spokesman for the Minneapolis-based
company, said the plant is closed Sundays but about 20 contractors and a few
other employees were at the site at the time of the fire.
Klein said the plant employs about 800 people, making it the largest
employer in Booneville.
Lori Hayes, a human resources manager for the plant, said corporate
officials would come to the plant in the coming days to examine the damage. She
said it was too early to say whether the plant would be rebuilt.
"We are asking all employees not to show up tomorrow," Hayes said.
Mann, who oversaw an Easter dinner for churchgoers Sunday night, said she
didn't know what the town would do if the plant didn't reopen.
"It's going to be devastating," Mann said.
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