Canada: Seafood Processing Plant Goes Up in Violent Blaze - It's a Total Loss

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Seafood Processing Plant Goes Up in Violent Blaze - It's a Total Loss

WJ | February 5, 2023


A food processing plant in the Canadian province of New Brunswick went up in flames Friday.

Jim LeBlanc, owner of W.E. Acres Crabmeal Ltd., said the structure was a “total loss,” according to the Canadian Television Network.

The fire erupted at about 2 p.m.

LeBlanc told CTV News the fire was started by an explosion in an oil drum.

However, Ronald Cormier, fire chief of the village of Cap-Pelé, said the cause of the fire is still unknown, but that it did not appear to have been arson, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

Although Cormier was quoted as saying no one was in the building when the fire started and no one was injured, LeBlanc said four people were inside and that he and one worker suffered minor injuries.

“Myself and one of my co-workers were injured, like burnt… first and second-degree burns. We’ll heal,” he told CTV.

LeBlanc told CTV his co-worker who was injured went to the hospital for treatment of second-degree burns.

The building produces fertilizer and animal feed, LeBlanc said.

Cormier told the CBC six fire departments spent more than four hours fighting the blaze.

According to the CBC, the fire was the fourth fish plant fire in the region including two fires that took place in 2021 and one from 2019.

After the second of the 2021 fires, which took place on two successive weekends, Louise Landry, mayor of the village of Beaubassin-est, said the incidents were unusual, according to CBC.

“We’re quite concerned,” she said at the time.

“The authorities will have to do the inquiries and we don’t want to jump to any conclusions. It’s also a loss of businesses, of jobs as well. And of course, all the residents that had to be evacuated today, [it] was quite scary for them also,” she said.