Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 12, 1992 TAG: 9201120259
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
IN THE FIRE'S AFTERMATH . . .
Since the Imperial Foods fire in Hamlet, N.C., that killed 25 people on Sept. 3:
U.S. Labor Secretary Lynn Martin said last Wednesday that she was giving North Carolina 90 days to shore up its worker-safety program or risk a federal takeover.
Imperial Foods was fined $808,150 for locking doors and violating other safety codes. State investigators found 83 violations. Among the 54 "willful," or most serious, violations were locked exit doors, unmarked exits, inadequate emergency lighting and work stations that were too far from exit doors.
Imperial Foods has closed its plants in Hamlet and Cumming, Ga., because of financial problems. Fire survivors have besieged the company with lawsuits.
The State Bureau of Investigation is trying to determine whether any state laws were broken.
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has taken over safety inspections from the state Labor Department, which has admitted having too few inspectors.
The U.S. House Labor Committee has issued a report saying that Imperial managers put profit ahead of safety and that state and federal officials "failed utterly" to protect the workers.
An OSHA reform bill has gotten more attention in Congress. Introduced in the House before the fire, the bill would require management-worker safety committees in companies with 11 or more employees, require fire safety training in high-hazard plants and allow workers to report potentially dangerous situations without fear of reprisals. The Senate also has a version of the bill.
The state's fire code has been changed to require that, beginning in 1993, local fire officials inspect every business in North Carolina at least once every three years. Although the chicken was inspected, the Imperial plant was never inspected for worker safety in the 11 years it operated.