Page 2 - Hamlet Fire News Today

Wikimedia A view of the cooker around which the1991 Imperial Foods chicken processing plant fire was centered. Taken from a report by the United States Fire Administration. On the morning of September 3, 1991, the never-inspected chicken-processing plant a stone’s throw from city hall in tiny Hamlet, NC, burst into flames. Twenty-five people perished that day behind the plant’s locked and bolted doors. It remains one of the deadliest accidents ever in the history of the modern American fo...

Horror and heroism often walk side-by-side. For every insurrectionist who attacked the U.S. Capitol last month, many more lifted their voices against racism and police violence in streets across our country. For every leader sowing false doubts about the 2020 results, droves of dedicated election workers tended to an honest vote. Amid every tweet downplaying the ravages of COVID-19, millions of American workers put their lives on the line every day to keep our society afloat. The past year was ...

On the morning of September 3, 1991 the Imperial Foods chicken processing plant in Hamlet, North Carolina burst into flames.  But managers had locked and bolted the factory’s doors. Engulfed in choking smoke and heat, the workers could not escape. Twenty-five workers died, fifty-five were injured. Eighteen of them were women, twelve were Black. Forty-nine children lost their parents. Typical of the industry and the region, the workers were paid just above the minimum wage. The plant had ne...