Six victims identified after fatal nitrogen leak at food processing plant in Georgia

Authorities on Friday released the names of the six people who were killed after a liquid nitrogen leak at a food processing plant in Georgia on Thursday.

The dead, all Foundation Food Group employees in Gainesville, have been identified as Jose DeJesus Elias-Cabrera, 45; Corey Alan Murphy, 35; Nelly Perez-Rafael, 28; Saulo Suarez-Bernal, 41 years old; Victor Vellez, 38 years old; and Edgar Vera-Garcia, 28, announced the Hall County Sheriff’s Office.

Four of the victims lived in Gainesville, while Murphy and Suarez-Bernal came from the nearby towns of Clermont and Dawsonville, respectively. Perez-Rafael was the only woman among the victims.

There was no immediate cause of death listed for the six pending autopsies performed by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the sheriff said.

The cause of the fatal incident at Thursday’s workplace, about 60 miles northeast of Atlanta, is currently under investigation by the Sheriff’s Office, the Fire Department and the Administration. occupational safety and health, officials said.

Five of the victims were declared dead at the scene, authorities said. The sixth victim, one of 12 people rushed to Northeast Georgia Medical Center, died in hospital.

Four people were still there at noon on Friday, a hospital spokeswoman said. Three were in critical condition and one was considered fair, according to the official.

While Foundation Food Group vice chairman Nicholas Ancrum declined to discuss the cause of the crash in detail on Thursday, he said “preliminary indications are that a nitrogen line has ruptured inside the facility “.

Poultry plants use refrigeration systems that often contain liquid nitrogen, which vaporizes into an odorless gas that can displace oxygen if a leak occurs.

Since 2017, OSHA has inspected or investigated complaints about the Gainesville plant, which is operated by Foundation Food Group and Prime Pak Foods Inc., according to records.

• OSHA opened a safety probe on December 10, 2020 that remains active and available records do not detail current issues.
• A May 26 referral, involving a potential threat of amputation, was closed on Nov. 20 with no apparent penalty, records show.
• Prime Pak agreed to pay $ 3,750 on October 17, 2019 for failing to provide adequate eye and face protection to workers.
• In 2018, the company agreed to settle with OSHA $ 12,548 following a July 6, 2017 incident in which an employee lost a little finger and ring finger when he “removed the guard from the cuber to clear a jam and had his left hand pulled in, ”according to OSHA records.
• Prime Pak was initially fined $ 25,097, but ultimately failed to pay OSHA for an April 6, 2017 incident when an employee lost at least three fingers in a meat mixer accident, according to records.

A Foundation Food Group spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday.

New US Senator Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., Who wooed Latino voters in his upset victory earlier this month, has pledged to “help workers, their families and the community of Gainesville heal.”

“My prayers and sympathies go out to the families of those who have lost loved ones and to those who were injured today in this horrific incident,” he said in a statement Thursday evening.

Suzanne Gamboa contributed.