Posted on 03/23/2008 1:41:23 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
BOONEVILLE, Ark. - A meat packing plant exploded Sunday afternoon, injuring an unknown number of people and forcing homes to be evacuated because ammonia gas leaked into the air, state officials said.
Flames poured out of the Cargill Meat Solutions plant just after 2 p.m., witnesses said. It wasn't immediately known how many homes were evacuated in the western Arkansas town of 4,000, emergency management spokeswoman Renee Preslar said.
A hazardous materials team from Sebastian County was heading to Booneville, Preslar said
Meredith Voges, 22, of Connecticut, said she heard the explosion while staying at a hotel just behind the plant. Voges, a member of a film crew shooting footage for a television program about a Booneville school principal, said hotel staff and police urged everyone to leave the area.
"The whole factory was ablaze with black smoke flying into the air, plumes of smoke," Voges said.
Booneville is about 90 miles northwest of Little Rock.
Now that was some rancid meat they were packing.
BBQ, Clintoon style?
I suspect cow pharts
Defective sausage casings?
Cargill Meat Solutions
a little too much ‘solution’ in this batch, it seems.. damn!
There were a ton of chicken farms along with meat packing and egg packing built during the Clinton years in that neck of the woods.They all stink.
I’ve always been a little suspicious of exploding meat.
Part of the
Cargill Value Added Meats Facilities
http://www.cargillmeatsolutions.com/about_us/tk_cms_about_loc.htm
Booneville
http://www.cargillmeatsolutions.com/about_us/tk_cms_about_loc_meat_boone.htm
That stuff usually doesn’t cause explosions until after I eat it.
Great.
Now I’m gonna be hungry all day.
We’ve blown up pits before, but never the whole party!
The fire has been burning out of control all afternoon, despite the efforts of four agencies on the scene.
Emergency management officials said they are concerned the plant’s ammonia tanks may have been damaged and could be leaking.
Crews are evacuating residents within a half-mile radius of the plant.
http://www.4029tv.com/news/15683393/detail.html
Now there's a thought-provoking name.
I wonder how come I've never seen a "Meat Solutions" section in a restaurant menu?
Methane gas. My wife would be proud if that blast was from me, not her.
Thanks, ammonia is bad stuff to be around.. hope they get it out without further injuries

Getting rid of evidence now that it looks like the x42's might not make it back into the White House.
PAAAAARRR- TAY !!!
check the fridge for something meaty-like made there.. the solution is out there. :-}
BTW, that means another $ or 2 or 3 to the price of burger. Screw them, they’re poisoning us anyway. Speed beef rules.
Betsy pleads the 5th.
another local station has this one as well, a couple pics as well.
Big fire at Booneville’s Meat Plant
http://www.kfsm.com/Global/story.asp?S=8057192
Red meat MAY be bad for you
but exploding meat - that stuff can kill you!
lol.. Thanks, I just saw that too.. no video links out there so far..

Ability to breathe fire no longer available in Bud Light.
The plant employee about 800 people and is the largest employer in Booneville which is a town of more than 4,000 in western Arkansas.
http://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article.aspx?aID=103970.35423.116112
it’s gonna hurt financially, that’s a sizeable number of folk.
“If an explosion last for more than four hours, seek medical attention.”
A good friend of ours (Granny Sharon to my daughters) works, or should I say now - worked there. Thankfully, she was not working today (was volunteer workers today for double-time pay)!
The word I got from them - some construction was going on, someone on the construction crew was welding too close to something that collapsed, rupturing an ammonia tank. The ammonia prevented the firefighters from getting the fire put out quickly - thus it is still burning as of right now (4:17 pm). Looks like a total loss by the time it all burns out.
I hope there is no serious injuries.
Thanks for the update..
oops! Formula 410 I presume?
I can’t understand why so many folks on here think this is so funny, when emergency workers at the plant don’t know if anyone has been injured or not.
Don’t you just hate it when your meat explodes?
posting at FR is a release mechanism for some I reckun, these threads are not immune ... but I hear ya.
I hope they have the gear to get in and get the job done..
article update ,, same link
BOONEVILLE, Ark. - A meat packing plant exploded Sunday afternoon, forcing homes to be evacuated because ammonia gas leaked into the air, state officials said.
It was not immediately known if there were any injuries, but a witness said she saw injured people.
Flames poured out of the Cargill Meat Solutions plant just after 2 p.m., witnesses said. It wasn’t immediately known how many homes were evacuated in the western Arkansas town of 4,000, emergency management spokeswoman Renee Preslar said.
A hazardous materials team from Sebastian County was heading to Booneville, Preslar said
Meredith Voges, 22, of Connecticut, said she heard the explosion while staying at a hotel just behind the plant. Voges, a member of a film crew shooting footage for a television program about a Booneville school principal, described the scene as “chaotic” and said hotel staff and police urged everyone to leave the area.
“The whole factory was ablaze with black smoke flying into the air, plumes of smoke,” Voges said. She said she saw injured people.
Cargill Inc. has about 2,000 employees in Arkansas, according to its Web site. Mark Klein, a spokesman for the Minneapolis-based company, said the plant was closed Sunday, but about 20 contractors and a few other employees were at the site at the time of the fire.
Klein said the plant, which produces frozen ground beef patties and steaks, uses ammonia in its refrigeration system. The plant employs about 800 people.
Booneville is about 90 miles northwest of Little Rock.
Danke.
Would it be wrong of me to wish a heavy pork rain on the nearest mosque?
Be careful when handling meat from China.
Big Beef O’rama.
I don’t know much about the subject but could someone explain to me how ammonia figures into the processing of meat? In the volume to necessitate storage tanks full of it?
Considering becoming a vegetarian...
http://www.wehirealiens.com/index.asp
Enter all or part of employer name
Cargill
And what is the status of the reported violations?
What little I know about it: ammonia gas, under pressure, is commonly used as a refrigerant in meat packing plant cooling systems. Less expensive that other refrigerants and usually a lot of safety measures in place. It has nothing to do with the actual meat being processed, other than keep the whole place cold. Experts welcome.
the ammonia is part of their refrigerant system at that plant
not sure on violations..
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