A fire in a boiler room at the Pilgrim’s Pride chicken processing plant in Moorefield, West Virginia, didn’t injure any employees, according to the Hardy County 911 emergency center.
A passerby reported the fire to the 911 center at 1:35 a.m. on Tuesday, December 6. Moorefield Volunteer Fire Department arrived at the scene, with assistance from the Petersburg and Romney volunteer fire units and an ambulance from the West Hardy Emergency Medical Services.
“We arrived on scene to find more or less a boiler room for part of the plant that was on fire, it was a two-story metal building that was fully engulfed. Everything was contained to that building, the good news is the fire was contained to the processing plant,” Moorefield Fire Chief Doug Mongold, said to WHSV.
The scene was declared clear at 4:35 a.m.
“We can confirm there was a fire at our Moorefield, W.Va., prepared foods facility. Thankfully, no team members were injured during the incident, and we appreciate the first responders for their quick action and support. The plant is open and operational, and we are still investigating the cause of the fire,” a Pilgrim’s Pride spokesperson told WATTPoultry.com.
Earlier this year, the prepared foods plant in Moorefield briefly closed due to an ammonia leak. The leak was quickly identified and the plant was fully evacuated.
The Pilgrim’s Pride Moorefield plant underwent an expansion project in 2016, with the addition of a fully cooked chicken line, as well as the enhancement of other lines at the plant. The improvement project represented an investment of about $25 million.
Pilgrim’s Pride, according to the WATTPoultry.com Top Companies database, is the second largest broiler producer in the United States, having processed 161.66 million pounds of ready-to-cook chicken in 2020. The company also has operations in Mexico and in Europe.
