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Related: About this forumUncle Joe
(58,111 posts)Thanks for the thread niyad.
niyad
(112,432 posts)It's a 39 minute HBO Documentary on Xfinity Demand.
niyad
(112,432 posts)sandensea
(21,526 posts)I suspect we have more to thank sprinklers for that, than any caution on the owners' part.
Thanks for posting this powerful - and timely - reminder of what can happen when businessmen are left to their own devices.
niyad
(112,432 posts)FiveGoodMen
(20,018 posts)The Hamlet chicken processing plant fire was an industrial fire in Hamlet, North Carolina, at the Imperial Foods processing plant on September 3, 1991, resulting from a failure in a hydraulic line. 25 workers were killed and 55 injured in the fire, trapped behind locked fire doors. In 11 years of operation, the plant had never received a safety inspection.[1] Investigators believe a safety inspection might have prevented the disaster.[2]
A federal investigation was launched. Owner Emmett Roe received a 20-year prison sentence, of which he served only four years. The company received the highest fine in the history of North Carolina,[3] which was less than the federal minimum. As a result, the federal government took over enforcement of much of North Carolina's worker safety laws.[4] Survivors and victims' families accused the fire service and city of Hamlet of racism, leading to two monuments to the tragedy being erected. The plant was never reopened.
The fire was the North Carolina's worst non-mining industrial disaster and second worst industrial disaster overall.[5] The death toll was particularly high for a United States industrial disaster in the late 20th century, despite being a lower death toll than several other disasters in the past, such as the 1947 Texas City disaster, the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, and the 1860 Pemberton Mill collapse.[6]
The Imperial Foods building was 11 years old, although the basic structure dated back to the early 20th century. The building had been used for food processing applications and had been an ice cream factory.[2] At the time of the fire, it included adjoining structures totaling 30,000 square feet (2,800 m2).[5] The factory was constructed with bricks and metalwork and was one story high.[2] The interior was a "maze of large rooms separated by moveable walls", and both workers and the product moved around the interior from process to process, going from front to rear.[5] Imperial's operators usually kept the doors of the chicken plant padlocked and the windows boarded, to prevent theft, vandalism or other criminal acts.[7] There had been no safety inspections by the state due to a lack of inspectors.[1] The poultry inspector visited the site daily and knew of the fire violations. One worker stated that much of the chicken meat was rotten,[7] and that the reason it was processed into chicken nuggets was to disguise the foul taste. He did not report these violations.[6][7] Some workers were made nervous by the locked doors but did not voice their concerns for fear of losing their jobs.[5]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet_chicken_processing_plant_fire
sandensea
(21,526 posts)I recall that it was that tragedy - and the Bush administration's typically cavalier, almost snooty response at the time - that really helped drive the point home to many voters that not only were things not "getting better;" but that their leadership couldn't care less.
Which of course is true of all these GOP administrations since Reagan - and more so with each one.
area51
(11,868 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)in NYC on my way to work (from the West Village to where I worked in Soho). There was a plaque on the building detailing the history of the event and paying tribute to the workers who died there. It has always haunted me for some reason. These were mostly teenage girls and young women. Like the victims of 9/11 it just pains me to think that people so young had to make the choice to burn or jump to their deaths. It was just so tragic. The owners of the sweatshop just didn't care about these poor, young immigrant women. There were also some men who died as well. It was a travesty that the owners were found not guilty.
UpInArms
(51,252 posts)We must never forget those who have died for injustice...