By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism. As Foundation Food Group plant clears some inspections, some workers concerned about returning to site of deadly nitrogen leak Employees gather outside of the Foundation Food Group site at Memorial Drive and Centennial Drive in Gainesville following a liquid nitrogen leak that killed six people. School buses were brought in to take employees away from the site. - photo by Scott Rogers
As investigators have released the majority of the Foundation Food Group plant back to the company, advocates in the community say workers are concerned about returning to the workplace that saw six deaths and 12 total people hospitalized.
6 Killed In Liquid Nitrogen Leak At Georgia Poultry Plant
Friday, January 29, 2021
A liquid nitrogen leak at a Gainesville, Ga., poultry processing plant killed six people and sent 11 others to the hospital Thursday.
Elijah Nouvelage / AFP via Getty Images
A liquid nitrogen leak at a poultry plant northeast of Atlanta killed six workers and sent 11 more to the hospital Thursday. At least three of the people hospitalized are in critical condition, officials said.
Local, state, and federal police and health and safety investigators are looking for what may have caused the leak at the Gainesville, Ga., Foundation Food Group plant. They cautioned Thursday it may be some time before they find out what happened.
Six people were killed, while 11 others were sent to a hospital on Thursday after a liquid nitrogen leak at a northeast Georgia poultry plant.
Authorities said at least three of those hospitalized were in critical condition. According to Zachary Brackett of Hall County Fire Services, firefighters responded to a report of burns at the Foundation Food Group plant, formerly Prime Pak Foods, in Gainesville at around 10:12 a.m.
Brackett noted that within 10 minutes, they had updated it to a hazardous materials response, NBC News reported. Once the units arrived, they found a large contingent of employees that had evacuated, along with multiple victims that were in that crowd that were also experiencing medical emergencies around the facility, Brackett said in a CNBC report.