Hazmat team responds to Smithfield Foods following ammonia leak that hospitalized four

TAR HEEL — Smithfield Foods plant was evacuated last Friday following an ammonia leak in the facility that sent four employees to the hospital.

Hazmat crews responded early Friday morning following the evacuation of the building. Smithfield Foods said in a statement that there was an ammonia leak in a refrigerated section of the facility sometime around 1 a.m.

Four employees were transported to the hospital after experiencing nausea and were later released.

All Smithfield Foods employees were eventually sent home to accommodate the inspection. “We have suspended operations for the remainder of the day as we investigate the cause,” the statement read. “Operations will resume only after we have confirmed the cause of the release and resolved the issue.”

A Smithfield Foods representative has also said that another employee was found unresponsive in his vehicle in the plant parking lot. The man was discovered around 4:30 a.m. and was later pronounced dead. The cause of this man’s death has not been determined, but it seems there is no connection to the ammonia release.

Smithfield Foods plant is a highly recognized part of the Bladen County community, but is also the largest meatpacking facility in the country and the largest pork processing facility in the world, employing approximately 4,500 people.