Another Blow to the US Food Market: Fire Breaks Out at a Food Processing Plant West of Waupaca County in Wisconsin

Photo submitted by Robert Wubben to FOX 11

A fire ignited inside a food manufacturing facility in the town of Belmont near the Portage-Waupaca County, Wisconsin on Monday.

Multiple fire departments responded to a fire at Festive Foods on County Highway D around 9 a.m., WSAW-TV reported.

The company owner and president, Mike Holmgren, said the cause of the fire is still under investigation.

The crew tried to put out the fire for almost nine hours since it started, according to an update from News 9.

The owner of Festive Foods, LLC, Michael Holmgren, says he’s grateful for emergency responders and their dedication, providing a glimpse into how the fire started.

“It was in the back of the building, up in the roofline area,” he explained.

Holmgren says over 100 employees were working in the building at the time the fire started.

All were able to evacuate safely.

Holmegren says its too early to tell what rebuilding might look like.

“There’s damages, yes,” he said over the phone, “so we have to assess how quickly we can rebuild. Everybody is very committed, everybody is safe and home with their families right now, and we’ll support them through this.”

Contrary to earlier reports, there is no concern of chlorine or chemical exposure through smoke at the plant.

Festive Foods, LLC is located in Waupaca, Wisconsin and is part of the Animal Slaughtering and Processing Industry. Based on the data from Dun&Bradstreet, the company has 150 total employees across all its locations.

Festive Foods manufacturing facility is a leading co-packer of frozen pizza and stuffed appetizers.

“Our frozen pizzas are prepared by chefs and not robots, and we make them available to you at many food retailers and supermarkets throughout the nation,” according to the company’s Facebook page.

The company released a statement regarding the incident on its Facebook page.

Today festive foods experienced a heart breaking event. As many of you have seen in the news we have had a terrible fire run though our plant. We are happy to say that all employees made it out quickly and safely with no injury’s.

We would like to say a large thank you to all of the fire fighters and emergency response teams that came out today to assist.

This was a large job to tackle and we are greatful for all who where involved. It was devastating to sit and watch the build that we have all put so many years into go up into flames. But at this time our plan is to regroup and rebuild.

We appreciate all the support we have seen so far and will be posting updates as they come.

As the Gateway Pundit reported, at least 19 major fires, including this recent incident, have erupted at food industry facilities and plants over the past six months. All of the fires have been officially listed as accidental or inconclusive.

Below is the updated list of U.S. plants that have been destroyed, damaged or impacted by “accidental fires,” disease, or general causes.

    1. 1/11/21 A fire that destroyed 75,000-square-foot processing plant in Fayetteville
    2. 4/30/21 A fire ignited inside the Smithfield Foods pork processing plant in Monmouth, IL
    3. 7/25/21 Three-alarm fire at Kellogg plant in Memphis, 170 emergency personnel responded to the call
    4. 7/30/21 Firefighters on Friday battled a large fire at Tyson’s River Valley Ingredients plant in Hanceville, Alabama
    5. 8/23/21 Fire crews were called to the Patak Meat Production company on Ewing Road in Austell
    6. 9/13/21 A fire at the JBS beef plant in Grand Island, Neb., on Sunday night forced a halt to slaughter and fabrication lines
    7.  10/13/21 A five-alarm fire ripped through the Darigold butter production plant in Caldwell, ID
    8. 11/15/21  A woman is in custody following a fire at the Garrard County Food Pantry
    9. 11/29/21  A fire broke out around 5:30 p.m. at the Maid-Rite Steak Company meat processing plant
    10. 12/13/21 West Side food processing plant in San Antonio left with smoke damage after a fire
    11. 1/7/22 Damage to a poultry processing plant on Hamilton’s Mountain following an overnight fire
    12. 1/13/22 Firefighters worked for 12 hours to put a fire out at the Cargill-Nutrena plant in Lecompte, LA
    13. 1/31/22 a fertilizer plant with 600 tons of ammonium nitrate inside caught on fire on Cherry Street in Winston-Salem
    14. 2/3/22 A massive fire swept through Wisconsin River Meats in Mauston
    15. 2/3/22 At least 130 cows were killed in a fire at Percy Farm in Stowe
    16. 2/15/22 Bonanza Meat Company goes up in flames in El Paso, Texas
    17. 2/15/22 Nearly a week after the fire destroyed most of the Shearer’s Foods plant in Hermiston
    18. 2/16/22 A fire had broken at US largest soybean processing and biodiesel plant in Claypool, Indiana
    19. 2/18/22 An early morning fire tore through the milk parlor at Bess View Farm
    20. 2/19/22 Three people were injured, and one was hospitalized, after an ammonia leak at Lincoln Premium Poultry in Fremont
    21. 2/22/22 The Shearer’s Foods plant in Hermiston caught fire after a propane boiler exploded
    22. 2/28/22 A smoldering pile of sulfur quickly became a raging chemical fire at Nutrien Ag Solutions
    23. 2/28/22 A man was hurt after a fire broke out at the Shadow Brook Farm and Dutch Girl Creamery
    24. 3/4/22 294,800 chickens destroyed at farm in Stoddard, Missouri
    25. 3/4/22 644,000 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Cecil, Maryland
    26. 3/8/22 243,900 chickens destroyed at egg farm in New Castle, Delaware
    27. 3/10/22 663,400 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Cecil, MD
    28. 3/10/22 915,900 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Taylor, IA
    29. 3/14/22 The blaze at 244 Meadow Drive was discovered shortly after 5 p.m. by farm owner Wayne Hoover
    30. 3/14/22 2,750,700 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Jefferson, Wisconsin
    31. 3/16/22 A fire at a Walmart warehouse distribution center in Plainfield, Indiana has cast a large plume of smoke visible throughout Indianapolis.
    32. 3/16/22 Nestle Food Plant extensively damaged in fire and new production destroyed Jonesboro, Arkansas
    33. 3/17/22 5,347,500 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Buena Vista, Iowa
    34. 3/17/22 147,600 chickens destroyed at farm in Kent, Delaware
    35. 3/18/22 315,400 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Cecil, Maryland
    36. 3/22/22 172,000 Turkeys destroyed on farms in South Dakota
    37. 3/22/22 570,000 chickens destroyed at farm in Butler, Nebraska
    38. 3/24/22 Fire fighters from numerous towns are battling a major fire at the McCrum potato processing facility in Belfast, Maine.
    39. 3/24/22 418,500 chickens destroyed at farm in Butler, Nebraska
    40. 3/25/22 250,300 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Franklin, Iowa
    41. 3/26/22 311,000 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota
    42. 3/27/22 126,300 Turkeys destroyed in South Dakota
    43. 3/28/22 1,460,000 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Guthrie, Iowa
    44. 3/29/22 A massive fire burned 40,000 pounds of food meant to feed people in a food desert near Maricopa
    45. 3/31/22 A structure fire caused significant damage to a large portion of key fresh onion packing facilities in south Texas
    46. 3/31/22 76,400 Turkeys destroyed in Osceola, Iowa
    47. 3/31/22 5,011,700 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Osceola, Iowa
    48. 4/6/22 281,600 chickens destroyed at farm in Wayne, North Carolina
    49. 4/9/22 76,400 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota
    50. 4/9/22 208,900 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota
    51. 4/12/22 89,700 chickens destroyed at farm in Wayne, North Carolina
    52. 4/12/22 1,746,900 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Dixon, Nebraska
    53. 4/12/22 259,000 chickens destroyed at farm in Minnesota
    54. 4/13/22 Fire destroys East Conway Beef & Pork Meat Market in Conway, New Hampshire
    55. 4/13/22 Plane crashes into Gem State Processing, Idaho potato and food processing plant
    56. 4/13/22 77,000 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota
    57. 4/14/22 Taylor Farms Food Processing plant burns down Salinas, California.
    58. 4/14/22 99,600 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota
    59. 4/15/22 1,380,500 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Lancaster, Minnesota
    60. 4/19/22 Azure Standard nation’s premier independent distributor of organic and healthy food, was destroyed by fire in Dufur, Oregon
    61. 4/19/22 339,000 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota
    62. 4/19/22 58,000 chickens destroyed at farm in Montrose, Color
    63. 4/20/22 2,000,000 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Minnesota
    64. 4/21/22 A small plane crashed in the lot of a General Mills plant in Covington, Georgia
    65. 4/22/22 197,000 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota
    66. 4/23/22 200,000 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota
    67. 4/25/22 1,501,200 chickens destroyed at egg farm Cache, Utah
    68. 4/26/22 307,400 chickens destroyed at farm Lancaster Pennsylvania
    69. 4/27/22 2,118,000 chickens destroyed at farm Knox, Nebraska
    70. 4/28/22 Egg-laying facility in Iowa kills 5.3 million chickens, fires 200-plus workers
    71. 4/28/22 Allen Harim Foods processing plant killed nearly 2M chickens in Delaware
    72. 4/2822 110,700 Turkeys destroyed Barron Wisconsin
    73. 4/29/22 5 million honeybees are dead after a flight carrying the pollinator insects from California to Alaska got diverted to Georgia (New)
    74. 4/29/22 1,366,200 chickens destroyed at farm Weld Colorado
    75. 4/30/22 13,800 chickens destroyed at farm Sequoia Oklahoma
    76. 5/3/22 58,000 Turkeys destroyed Barron Wisconsin
    77. 5/3/22 118,900 Turkeys destroyed Beadle S Dakota
    78. 5/3/22 114,000 ducks destroyed at Duck farm Berks Pennsylvania
    79. 5/3/22 118,900 Turkeys destroyed Lyon Minnesota
    80. 5/7/22 20,100 Turkeys destroyed Barron Wisconsin
    81. 5/10/22 72,300 chickens destroyed at farm Lancaster Pennsylvania
    82. 5/10/22 61,000 ducks destroyed at Duck farm Berks Pennsylvania
    83. 5/10/22 35,100 Turkeys destroyed Muskegon, Michigan
    84. 5/13/22 10,500 Turkeys destroyed Barron Wisconsin
    85. 5/14/22 83,400 ducks destroyed at Duck farm Berks Pennsylvania
    86. 5/17/22 79,00 chickens destroyed at Duck farm Berks Pennsylvania
    87. 5/18/22 7,200 ducks destroyed at Duck farm Berks Pennsylvania
    88. 5/19/22 Train carrying limestone derailed Jensen Beach FL
    89. 5/21/22 57,000 Turkeys destroyed on farm in Dakota Minnesota
    90. 5/23/22 4,000 ducks destroyed at Duck farm Berks Pennsylvania
    91. 5/29/22 A Saturday night fire destroyed a poultry building at Forsman Farms in Howard Lake, Minnesota
    92. 5/31/22 3,000,000 chickens destroyed by fire at Forsman facility in Stockholm Township, Minnesota
    93. 6/2/22 30,000 ducks destroyed at Duck farm Berks Pennsylvania
    94. 6/7/22 A fire occurred Tuesday evening at the JBS meat packing plant in Green Bay, Wisconsin
    95. 6/8/22 Firefighters from Tangipahoa Fire District 1 respond to a fire at the Purina Feed Mill in Arcola, Louisiana
    96. 6/9/22 Irrigation water was canceled in California (the #1 producer of food in the US) and storage water flushed directly out to the delta.
    97. 6/12/22 Largest Pork Company in the US Shuts Down California Plant Due to High Costs
    98. 6/13/22 Fire Breaks Out at a Food Processing Plant West of Waupaca County in Wisconsin
    99. 6/14/22 Over 10,000 head of cattle have reportedly died in the recent Kansas heat wave
    100. 6/23/22 George’s Inc.: Poultry and Prepared Foods announced it will close one of its food processing plants in Campbell County, Tennessee
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Jim Hᴏft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016.

You can email Jim Hoft here, and read more of Jim Hoft's articles here.

 

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