A Cargill poultry processing plant in London, Ontario, remained closed on May 25 after a fire broke out at the facility in the early morning hours two days earlier.
In an email to WATT Global Media, Cargill spokesman Daniel Sullivan said the plant sustained a fire on May 23, but the cause of the fire has not yet been determined.
The plant was actually closed the day the fire occurred in observance of Victoria Day, a federal holiday in Canada. Therefore, no employees were impacted.
The London Fire Department posted on Twitter that there was a structure fire at 10 Cuddy Blvd., which is the plant’s address. “Upon arrival heavy fire and smoke conditions that crews were able to knock down and gain access to extinguish the fire,” the tweet read.
“Thanks to the excellent response from the London firefighters, in combination with our sprinkler/pump system, the fire was quickly contained,” Sullivan said.
Cargill, one of the world’s largest and most recognizable agriculture companies, announced in 2018 that it was installing controlled atmosphere stunning (CAS), replacing electrical stunning at its facility in London.
The plant also experienced a temporary shutdown in April 2021, due to concerns related to COVID-19.
Cargill, according to the Poultry International Top Companies survey, is the world’s 11th largest broiler producer, and also has operations in Honduras, Colombia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Thailand, the United Kingdom and China. The company slaughtered 604.3 billion chickens during the past year. Cargill also operates Avara Foods, which is the world’s 42nd largest broiler producer, in a partnership with Faccenda Foods in the U.K.
The company also ranks as the third largest turkey producer in the United States, having slaughtered 900 million pounds of turkeys during each of the past two years.
Cargill’s North American protein operations are headquartered in Wichita, Kansas.
