On this day in Labor History the year was 1991.
That was the day that a fire killed twenty-five workers are the Imperial Food Products plant in Hamlet, North Carolina.
More than fifty workers were injured.
The plant made chicken products for fast food restaurants and grocery stores.
According to an article in the New York Times, the plant was “a warren of ramshackle buildings.”
The fire “started with hydraulic fluid from a ruptured line spraying in to gas flames that heated large, oil-filled cooking vats.”
Ninety workers were inside when the fire began.
Some were able to escape out the main entrance or a loading bay.
But the emergency exits of the plant were locked from the outside.
A worker said that this was on the order of company owner Emmett J Roe, to stop workers from stealing chicken.
A passerby, Sam Breeden was interviewed by the Associated Press.
He described the tragic scene “They were screaming: ‘let me out.” They were beating on the door. The people could not force the door open.”
At the time of the fire, the company had not had a fire inspection in eleven years.
An inspection after the fire found 54 “willful” violations.
The company was fined more than $800,000.
Although this was the highest fine in the history of North Carolina, it was far less than federal fines for similar workplace disasters.
That is because North Carolina has a state-run occupational health and safety program.
At the time of the fire nearly half of the states in the country had state-run safety inspections.
And for the company owner Emmett Roe?
He was convicted on twenty-five counts of involuntary manslaughter.
Serving just four years.
February 21 - The First Female Telephone Operator
February 20 - Angelina Grimke is Born
February 19 - Philly Street Car Workers Spark General Strike
February 18 - Anti-Slavery Begins in America
February 17 - Standing Up By Sitting Down
February 16 - The Wisconsin Uprising Begins
February 15 - The Uprising of the 20,000 Comes to a Close
February 14 - Kansas City Laundresses Walk Off the Job
February 13 - Martial Law Declared to Crush the UAW
February 12 - The NAACP is Founded
February 11 - Cutting Corners on Safety at Sequoyah I
February 10 - Forty-Three Workers Buried Alive
February 9 - Organizing Bloody Harlan
February 8 - Butte Copper Miners Join the 1919 Strike Wave
February 7 - Strike at Cripple Creek
February 6 - Philly Garment Workers Win!
February 5 - The Fight for Craft Governance
February 4 - Solidarity on the Coast
February 3 - Anti-Trust Injunctions Used Against Labor
February 2 - The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Navigating Life After 40
Teaching Learning Leading K-12
Regenerative Skills
The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast
The Mel Robbins Podcast