Screaming workers pounded and kicked locked exit doors as fire swept a chicken processing plant, killing 25 people and injuring 49. The 11-year-old plant had never been inspected.
"A whole lot of people were in one little corner, just pushing, trying to make a hole in the wall," said worker Letha Terry. "I thought I was gone, until a man broke the lock off the door. I thank the Lord I got out, but a whole lot of people got killed."The blaze Tuesday at the Imperial Food Products plant erupted when a hydraulic line ruptured near a 26-foot-long deep-fat fryer and the spilled fluid caught fire, said Charles Dunn, deputy director of the State Bureau of Investigation.
Fire Chief David Fuller would not confirm witnesses' reports that all but one of nine exits were locked or blocked.
Ella Mae Blackstock and other workers said the company kept doors locked "so people couldn't steal their chickens."
"Certain doors are locked at certain times," said Brad Roe, operations manager and son of plant owner Emmett J. Roe. "I can't tell you which doors were locked, if any were locked."
SBI agent Neil Godfrey said the designated fire doors were unlocked, but other exits were impassable, including those closest to the fire. "Obviously there may be some compliance problems," he said.
However, a door with a sign saying "Fire Door Do Not Block" was seen padlocked.
Blackened footprints were on one door after the blaze. Some workers could be heard screaming helplessly and eventually perished, witnesses said.
Some victims were found near exits and others were found in a meat locker, where they had fled, Fuller said. About 90 of Imperial Food's 200 employees were in the plant when the fire erupted about 8:30 a.m., the company said.
Authorities said 25 people were killed, and hospitals reported at least 49 injured.
"You can tell by the look of the people that it's a tragedy beyond belief," Mayor Abbie Covington said. "In a small town it's always somebody's neighbor or somebody's son."
One firefighter found his father dead, said Joey Jernigan, a town councilman.
Imperial Food is the town's largest employer. Hamlet, in south-central North Carolina, has a population of about 6,900.
The plant, which makes chicken nuggets and marinated chicken breasts sold at fast-food restaurants and grocery stores, was never inspected by the state because there are not enough inspectors, said Charles Jeffress, assistant commissioner of the North Carolina Department of Labor.
The state focuses on plants that have safety complaints, and none had ever been filed against Imperial, he said. The state fire code does not specify how often a plant should be inspected.
SBI's Dunn said maintenance workers had just reconnected the hydraulic line when it ruptured, spraying the flammable fluid onto the floor, he said.
The vapor reached the fryer in the middle of the 30,000-square-foot plant "and apparently there was a flash and the fire started there," he said.