Fire destroys Cargill plant in Booneville
Posted on Monday, March 24, 2008
BOONEVILLE — Sparks from welding equipment ignited a fire Sunday that destroyed a 150, 000-square-foot meat processing plant and prompted the evacuation of almost 1, 000 people because of an ammonia leak. “There were no injuries or fatalities in this event,” Sebastian County Office of Emergency Management deputy coordinator Tonya Roberts said Sunday. All but about 500 people evacuated were allowed to return to their homes.
A maintenance crew of 22 and four employees of Cargill Meat Solutions were in the plant about 1 p. m. when a welder doing routine maintenance accidentally started the fire on the west end of the plant, Roberts said. Although the fire quickly spread, workers were able to get out without injury. The fire caused several small explosions that Roberts said could have been caused by air lines, cleaning chemicals or leaking ammonia.
Booneville firefighters initially responded to the fire alarm and fought the blaze for less than an hour before being pulled back for fear the anhydrous ammonia, used as a refrigerant in the plant, would leak. Ammonia gas can cause breathing problems.
Almost immediately, Roberts said, a fleet of ambulances from throughout the area was used to evacuate 78 patients from the Oak Manor Nursing Home two miles south of the plant. The patients were taken to nursing homes in Greenwood, Russellville and Dardanelle, Logan County Emergency Medical Services’ Becky Steele said.
Steele said about 180 residents at the Booneville Human Development Center south of the Cargill plant were taken by bus to the First Baptist Church gymnasium in Mansfield. Ten patients at the Booneville Community Hospital were transferred to a hospital in Waldron in Scott County, Roberts said.
A Fort Smith Fire Depart- ment hazardous materials team checked an 88, 000-gallon ammonia tank on the outside of the plant about 4 p. m. and found it to be empty.
By then, the plant lay in smoking ruins.
Roberts said pipes containing ammonia circulated throughout the plant and raised fears of explosions or exposure of the gas to firefighters.
“That’s why they let [the plant ] burn,” she said.
Booneville Mayor Jerry Wilkins said all residents in a half-mile radius to the south of the plant and a quarter-mile north of the plant were being kept from their homes Sunday for fear of ammonia exposure. He estimated about 75 homes were in that evacuation zone.
No shelters were being opened for residents evacuated from their homes, officials said, believing most would stay with friends or relatives.
“That’s the good part about living in a small town because neighbors will help neighbors,” Logan County Judge Edgar Holt said. Booneville has a population of 4, 000.
Law enforcement and emergency personnel from Logan and surrounding counties swarmed to the site as the call for help spread. Officers set up road blocks around the plant to keep people from the affected area. Logan County Sheriff Steve Smith said no problems arose although a few evacuated residents tried to go back to their homes to pick up possessions or medication.
Lori Hayes, human resources manager at the plant, said a team from the company’s home office in Minneapolis would come to Booneville to devise a plan on what to do next. She said it was too early to say whether the company would rebuild the plant.
The plant employs 800 people and makes ground beef, steaks and “Arby’s roast beef,” she said.
Part of the plan, she said, would deal with employees’ unemployment and their futures.
Cargill purchased the plant in the late 1980 s and completed a $ 40 million expansion in the last five years, Hayes said.
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