A fire at a JBS USA facility in Grand Island, Neb., delayed production as firefighters battled the blaze. Production was disrupted on Monday, September 13, but the company said that operations had returned to normal by Tuesday.
Grand Island firefighters began battling the fire around 9:45 Sunday night and continued through the following day. The company announced that the “fabrication and slaughter A and B shift” would not report to work on September 13. Company spokesperson told Reuters that the blaze did not impact the plant’s primary production areas, and the company was expected o resume its Tuesday schedule pending an assessment of the facility.
The fire burned a hole through the facility’s roof, but the damage was confined to the rendering department.
“"Fortunately, JBS is very modular so if one area has an issue, for the most part it doesn't affect the other areas," said Cory Schmidt, chief of the Grand Island Fire Department.
Reuters stated that the Grand Island facility has the capacity to harvest 6,000 cattle a day, or about 5% of the cattle slaughtered in the U.S. daily.
Sources:Nebraska.tv,Reuters