September 3 - Locked In to Die

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.