Taylor Farms building in Salinas is a 'total loss' after large fire. What happens now?
SALINAS — As the smoke settles near the Taylor Farms salad package plant, questions remain on the future of the business and the roughly 1,000 people employed at the California facility.
There is little to nothing left of the processing facility due to fire and smoke damages caused by the Wednesday night blaze, according to Salinas Deputy Fire Chief Sam Klemek.
"About 85% to 95% of the building is a total loss," he said. "There are parts of the building that are separate, that are still operational. As far as the main processing facility, it's considered a total loss."
In addition to fighting the fire, crews were on high alert for potential ammonia exposure dangers. Roughly 35,000 pounds of ammonia is stored on-site. The possibility that the fire could spread to the ammonia prompted city officials to issue evacuations and shelter-in-place orders for south Salinas.
About 2,700 people living closest to the plant were told that they should evacuate, while 35,000 more were ordered to shelter inside their homes, the Monterey County Office of Emergency Services said in a statement.
Salinas Fire Chief Michele Vaughn says the city avoided a much bigger tragedy.
"It can be explosive, and so, with that amount of 35,000 pounds of ammonia, that could have been devastating to this community," she said. "We're talking big explosions with major damage throughout the community and not just Taylor Farms."
City officials said fire and police personnel were quick to respond to the fire. Crews also received help from facility workers, who showed first responders where chemicals were located.
Emergency response and hazmat teams worked to control the blaze for more than 17 hours straight.
"Right now, we're going to be transitioning into a monitoring and cleanup, getting engaged back in firefighting," Klemek said. "Now that the moderate leak has been secured on site, we'll be able to get fire crews back in there to start to clean up hot spots and secure the scene."
More than 1,000 workers are employed at the facility, leaving some people questioning what will happen to their jobs.
Taylor Farms Senior Project Manager Darin Salden says the company is working to develop next steps.
"Bruce Taylor (CEO) has been meeting with all of the vice presidents of the different divisions to make sure that any people that are suffering any hardships, primarily the workers that are in Yuma making their way here," Salden said. "They're making sure that we take care of everybody, work through the problem and then work with the community on what we can do moving forward. Obviously, the building's a loss so, we need to look to the future."
Also in question is the fate of the now destroyed building, which provides food service for various local institutions including hospitals and prisons.
"Thankfully, we have other plants in the immediate area," Salden said. "We are working any option available to us to continue our products to our customers and make sure that we keep everything going."
The official cause of the fire is under investigation.
Klemek says inspections of the facility are conducted annually, and that details of the last inspection will be looked at.
"We made contact with plant officials that did report to us that there was a maintenance being performed and perhaps some welding going on in the area of the origin of the fire," Klemek said. "We'll be speaking to more of those folks who were on scene, getting some more details, but at this point, nothing that indicates foul play or anything like that."
Evacuation and shelter-in-place orders were lifted Thursday afternoon. However. community members are asked to avoid the affected area as it is still an active scene.
This article originally appeared on Salinas Californian: Salinas' Taylor Farms building is a 'total loss' after large fire
