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Echo Lake Foods GM Talks About Massive Fire
Echo Lake Foods GM Talks About Massive Fire
BURLINGTON (WITI) -- Fire crews were back at the Echo Lake Foods plant in Burlington for a half-hour Friday evening, putting out a hot spot after finally putting the massive blaze out earlier in the day.
Echo Lake Foods general manager Jerry Warntjes was at the plant on Friday. He says the fire was an accident.
"We think we know," Warntjes said. "I have a very strong opinion what happened. But I'll reserve comment on that until next week on that."
Warntjes says a maintenance manager at the plant initially tried putting out the blaze out with a fire extinguisher. When that did not work, employees called 911 and started to evacuate. Orange wind socks directed the employees upwind from the fire, and a head count revealed that everyone had made it out of the plant.
"We have these safety meetings that we have throughout the year, and employees knew what to do," Warntjes said. "They all evacuated to the North, took a head count, and told everyone to go home." .
Warntjes praised the safety practices, crediting them for helping employees avoid injury during a dangerous situation.
"It is about as bad as it gets, and nobody get hurt, you know," Warntjes said. "Nobody even slipped on the ice, as far as I know. We had salt spreaders ... city came in, spread salt, had our crews spreading salt."
Most of the production area of the plant was destroyed. Warntjes said it is too early to know the cost of the damage of the fire. However, he said the plant's goal is to rebuild in Burlington.
For now, everyone remains grateful that every single employee made it home safely.
"That's all steel and concrete, you know," Warntjes said. "It's gone, but it can be redone."