Hamlet chicken processing plant fire

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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 North Carolina's worst industrial disaster.[5] Higher fatalities occurred at the 1947
Texas City disaster, the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, and the 1860 Pemberton Mill
collapse.[6] Some mining disasters have been worse: 53 miners died in 1925 in North Carolina in
the Coal Glen mine disaster.