Sam Breeden heard the commotion as he walked near the Imperial Food Products Co. plant. Then he saw his sister-in-law, head wreathed in dark smoke, trying to squeeze past a trash bin jammed against the building.
"She called my name and I ran to her," said Breeden, a 41-year-old machine shop owner, who spent agonizing minutes trying to fan away smoke so his sister-in-law could breathe.All the while, he heard the screams of other trapped workers as they pounded on a locked door.
He got his sister-in-law to safety after a tractor pulled the trash bin away from the building. Several critically injured workers lay near where the bin had been. One was a distant relative who later died.
Breeden's was one of the many stories told the day after North Carolina's worst industrial fire left 25 dead and 55 injured in this city of 6,300. Eighteen of the dead were young women, many of them single mothers, officials said.
The common theme to the tales was the panic created by several blocked exits and the billowing wall of toxic black smoke that filled the chicken processing plant Tuesday morning.
Those who worked in the front of the building escaped through a main entrance. Those in the back were trapped between the poisonous fumes and doors that were locked - according to employees - to prevent pilferage.
Panicked by the smoke and the loss of lights to the fire, many of the victims ran into dead ends. Twelve were found in a meat cooler; three others were carried to the lawn outside after they were found collapsed behind the trash bin.
Others died as they groped, gasping in the dark for escape.
There was no sprinkler system at the 11-year-old plant, which had never had a safety inspection.