2 more workers released from hospital after chemical leak at Gainesville food processing plant

Two workers who were hospitalized following a chemical leak at a food processing plant Thursday in Gainesville have been released and a third has been upgraded from critical condition to fair, according to federal officials.

The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board who has been at the Foundation Food Group Plant 4 since Friday investigating.

Six people were killed, dozens hospitalized, and a hundred others were evacuated after a liquid nitrogen line ruptured along Line 4 inside the plant, the CSB determined. The line is where chicken is processed including seasoning, cooking, freezing, and then packaging.

Federal investigators said the freezing equipment had been switched over from an ammonia-based to a liquid nitrogen cryogenic system in 2020. The original system had not been removed yet. The method was also being used on Line 2 of the same plant. Officials said it is an immersion-spiral freezer that first submerges the chicken product in liquid nitrogen at temperatures of -350 degrees Fahrenheit using a conveyer belt. That belt then moves the chicken through a spiral freezer where it is exposed to recovered gaseous nitrogen.

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Tools were found around that system on Saturday and federal investigators have since learned "unplanned maintenance" was being conducted on Line 4.

The CSB said the liquid nitrogen process was manufactured by Messer.

Since Friday, federal investigators have been talking to witnesses, coordinating with local emergency officials, and collecting evidence in their investigation. Some of those witnesses told FOX 5 last week the company knew of a leak on the system.

Refrigeration was not listed in the facility’s previous safety violations in OSHA’s records, according to the Associated Press. But the plant, previously called Prime Pak Foods, has been cited numerous times by the agency. FOX 5 found two separate incidents in 2017 that involved employees getting fingers severed off after getting their hands stuck in equipment.

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Gainesville is the hub of Georgia’s poultry industry, which is the largest in the country. Thousands of employees work across multiple processing plants around the city and much of the workforce, like in many meat-processing plants nationwide, is Latino.

Thursday's accident killed 45-year-old Jose DeJesus Elias-Cabrera, 35-year-old Corey Alan Murphy, 28-year-old Nelly Perez-Rafael, 41-year-old Saulo Suarez-Bernal, 38-year-old Victor Vellez, and 28-year-old Edgar Vera-Garcia. About a dozen others were taken to the hospital and about 130 more were evacuated and evaluated at a nearby location.

A prayer vigil was held Saturday at the plant to honor those who died.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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