Town Mourns 25 Victims of Blaze in Chicken Plant

Mourners fought back tears and embraced beneath stained-glass windows in a century-old church Thursday, remembering the 25 victims of this week’s fire at a chicken-processing plant.

The 150 mourners--black and white, young and old--were led in prayer and song by pastors from several area churches.

“I believe God is as outraged by this loss of life as we are,” said the Rev. Leonard Fairley, pastor of St. Peter United Methodist Church. “Now we have the task of putting back together our lives. As we do so, we will never be the same.”

Everyone inside First Baptist Church was touched by Tuesday’s fire at the Imperial Foods plant. The blaze also injured 56 people.

At Fairley’s request, the mourners embraced each other.

“It’s not a question of what the white churches are doing and what the black churches are doing,” Fairley said. “We are all suffering together. The question now is: ‘What can we do now?’ ”

Mayor Abbie Covington offered her condolences.

“The healing process is going to be long and difficult for the entire community,” she said. “These people are our friends and neighbors. As a small community, it becomes our loss.”

The somber service did not reflect the rage of some family members and friends of the victims, many of whom believe that some of the workers may have been trapped inside the plant by locked fire exits.

“We come now to ask for understanding and strength,” said the Rev. Harold Miller, a Baptist preacher. “Earth has no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal.”

The first funerals for victims of the fire are scheduled for today in Hamlet and in other nearby communities.

At the plant Thursday, investigators and insurance adjusters came and went, while the crowd of onlookers receded for the first time since the fire.

Investigators are trying to determine whether locked exits trapped the workers inside the burning building. Witnesses said one door was blocked and others were locked. Workers said doors were locked to prevent pilferage.

Federal inspectors in Cumming, Ga., have found fire hazards in the cooking room at a poultry plant there that is owned by the same company, and the cooking room was shut down.

Meanwhile, a House committee next week will look into the North Carolina fire, Rep. William D. Ford (D-Mich.) said Thursday.

“From the initial information I have seen, this is a tragedy that should not have happened,” said Ford, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee.

“There appears to have been a total lack of enforcement of even the most elementary safety standards,” he said.

The plant was never inspected in its 11 years of operation.

State Labor Commissioner John Brooks said his inspection staff is so small that it would take 65 years to visit every workplace in North Carolina.