Probe focuses on chicken conveyer in deaths at Georgia plant

Sudhin Thanawala/AP

5 years ago

Two Hall County Firefighters enter a back door Friday, Jan. 29, 2021, at Foundation Food Group in Gainesville, Ga., the day after six people were killed following a liquid nitrogen leak at the plant. (Scott Rogers/The Times via AP)

ATLANTA (AP) — Federal investigators say problems with the operation of a conveyer belt system appear to be the cause of a liquid nitrogen release that killed six workers at a Georgia chicken processing plant.

Chicken traveled down the conveyer before being submerged in a liquid nitrogen bath for flash freezing.

The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board said late Sunday that operational issues with the conveyer apparently resulted in the accidental release of liquid nitrogen in the flash freezing bath.

The release occurred last month at the Foundation Food Group plant in Gainesville in northeast Georgia.

Foundation Food Group’s plant in Gainesville, Ga., Friday, Jan. 29, 2021. Workers at the northeast Georgia poultry plant said they escaped through a fog of vaporizing liquid nitrogen that killed six of their coworkers, as an investigation continued Friday into the cause of the leak at Foundation Foods Group. (Scott Rogers/The Times via AP)

Candles and flowers are left along Centennial Drive near Foundation Food Group, Friday, Jan. 29, 2021, in Gainesville, Ga., in memory of the six that died from a nitrogen leak at the plant the day before. (Scott Rogers/The Times via AP)