Workers at the Perdue Farms poultry plant in Monterey, Tennessee, were back on the job on November 2 after a fire broke out there two days prior.
Monterey Fire Chief Kevin Peters told News Talk 94.1 that the fire, which was reported around 4 p.m., was contained to the east wing of the building, with most of the damage being caused to the roof and air vents. No significant damage was done to the machinery in the facility, he added.
“When we got to the scene, at the east side of the building they were in production, and they were running chicken products through a fryer,” Peters said. “The grease had caught on fire, and it was something like a chimney fire in a house.”
Nobody was injured in the incident.
The plant, which was also the site of a fire in 1989, had been scheduled for maintenance, but because of complications from the COVID-19 pandemic, that maintenance was postponed.
Monterrey’s assistant fire chief, who is also an employee at the Perdue plant, was in communication with Peters while firefighters were on their way to the scene.
In a statement released to WSMV, Perdue Farms spokesperson Diana Souder said: “The local fire department responded swiftly and extinguished the fire. We are tremendously grateful for our local first responders and the safety of our colleagues.”
Earlier in 2020, the Perdue plant in Monterey was honored by the Joint Industry Safety and Health Council with the Award of Distinction, the council’s highest honor.
The Award of Distinction criteria required poultry processing facilities facilities to maintain their key Occupational Safety and Health Administration safety metrics — Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR), Days Away, Restricted or Transferred (DART), and Lost Work-Day Incident Rate (LWDIR) — at levels at least 50 percent better than the industry average for three consecutive years.
