Western Standard - April 26, 2022


EXCLUSIVE Destruction of food plants a global phenomenon


Episode Stats

Length

3 minutes

Words per Minute

148.639

Word Count

486

Sentence Count

26


Summary

Food shortages are a growing concern globally, and have been exacerbated by a string of fires, plane crashes, and explosions at nearly two dozen food processing facilities across Canada and the U.S. And beyond North American plants, there have been dozens more food processing plants destroyed in fires and explosions in the last two years.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 After an exclusive story looking at how a string of food processing facilities in North America have been destroyed,
00:00:06.620 the Western Standard has found dozens more incidents around the globe.
00:00:10.860 Food shortages are a growing concern globally and have been exacerbated by a string of fires, plane crashes and explosions
00:00:18.060 at nearly two dozen food processing facilities across Canada and the U.S.
00:00:22.540 And beyond North American food processing plants, there have been dozens more food processing facilities destroyed in fires and explosions in the last two years.
00:00:33.660 Crews are currently battling a large fire at Riverway Foods, a sausage factory in the U.K.
00:00:39.900 70 firefighters are on scene, as reported by the BBC.
00:00:43.840 On Monday, 43,000 chickens died in a massive fire that destroyed four chicken houses on a farm in the Dutch town of Houston,
00:00:51.520 according to World Today News.
00:00:54.240 In March, a fire at a poultry farm in India killed 3,500 chickens.
00:00:59.240 According to Pippa News, the fire destroyed the entire farm.
00:01:03.380 Another poultry farm in India was also hit by fire in March, killing 8,500 chickens.
00:01:09.760 Times of India reported these fires may have been caused by a short circuit.
00:01:13.740 In January, a fire at another poultry farm in India killed more than 2,500 chickens, according to the print.
00:01:22.600 In December 2021, 8,000 chickens were killed in a poultry farm blaze in Sri Lanka.
00:01:28.800 News first reported the fire was likely sparked by an electrical leak.
00:01:32.760 A massive blaze at a Northern Ireland farm killed hundreds of pigs in November 2021, as reported by News Leader.
00:01:41.280 No one was injured in the blaze.
00:01:43.580 The Western Standard has found several more incidents of fires and explosions at food processing facilities around the world,
00:01:50.980 which are included in our exclusive story.
00:01:54.100 Although these incidents seem to be on the rise, fires in the food industry are not uncommon.
00:01:59.400 A fire prevention company out of the UK said in a 2017 news article,
00:02:05.360 fires in the food industry are a trend.
00:02:08.580 A&F Sprinklers Ltd pointed to several facilities being destroyed by fires spanning more than a decade across Europe,
00:02:16.600 including facilities in Germany, Spain, and Belgium, each lacking automatic fire sprinklers, said the sprinkler supplier.
00:02:23.800 It also pointed to sandwich panels, typically found in the construction of food processing facilities,
00:02:30.920 constructed of plastic with inferior fire resistance that burn black smoke, making firefighting hazardous.
00:02:38.240 The news article said 88 fires were reported in food factories between 2010 and 2014.
00:02:44.540 A report from Dust Safety Science, a company recording combustible dust incidents since 2016,
00:02:51.860 said in 2020, food products made up nearly half of the combustible dust fires and explosions recorded.
00:02:58.880 An article on Graphic Products, a global provider of industrial supplies designed to improve safety on work sites,
00:03:06.080 said the food processing and manufacturing industry is full of hazards,
00:03:10.780 right from the machinery down to the chemicals used.
00:03:13.460 For the Western Standard, I'm Melanie Risden.