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More than 20 ConAgra Foods employees filed a lawsuit Thursday against the town of Garner, N.C. and more than 15 contractors who had worked at ConAgra’s Slim Jim plant in there before last summer’s fatal explosion that killed four people and injured dozens more.
The 23 employees named as plaintiffs in the civil suit all suffered injuries in the explosion, including severe burns and emotional trauma, according to the lawsuit filed in Wake County District Court.
The suit alleges negligence on the part of the town of Garner and the contractors, including Hickory, N.C.-based Energy Systems Analysts, which federal investigators said caused the blast by improperly purging indoor a natural gas line that fueled the plant’s water heater.
According to the suit, investigators from the town of Garner were at the ConAgra facility on June 9, the day of the explosion, and witnessed the improper purging of the natural gas line, but allowed it to continue. Previously, the town of Garner allowed contractor Midsouth Industrial Refrigeration Inc. to install the natural gas and propane lines that fed the water heater, even though Midsouth did not have the proper permits or licenses to install the lines, according to the suit.
Garner Mayor Ronnie Williams said Thursday in a telephone interview that neither he nor any other members of Garner’s city council were aware that there were investigators at ConAgra’s facility on June 9.
"I was not aware of that," Williams said. "We’re going to defend what we have to defend."
ConAgra was not named as a defendant in the suit.
ConAgra officials announced early last month that the company will close the Garner facility, shifting operations to a plant in Troy, Ohio. Before the blast, the Slim Jim factory employed 750 people. Nearly 321 were laid of last September and the remainder were notified last month that they would lose their jobs.
ConAgra agreed with the North Carolina Department of Labor to pay a reduced fine of $106,440 after the Omaha-based company originally was fined $134,773 for 26 Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) violations that were deemed serious.
Energy Systems Analysts was fined $58,000 on 28 serious offenses.
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