The operators of the Agri Star Meat Plant in Postville say some limited operations could start up this week after the big fire that hit the plant in the last week of July.
Iowa Workforce Development deputy director Georgia Van Gundy says they’ve been helping out, but she says the number of people out of work was less than expected. “They still kept a lot of people employed from a maintenance perspective and then also from their office workforce. And then they are recalling a lot of their workforce here in the next couple of weeks is our understanding,” she says.
The fire at the towns and area’s largest employer had large plumes of smoke billowing out and the initial estimate from the fire chief was that 75% of the plant was damaged. Van Gundy says that raised a lot of concern right after the fire. “I think that initially people were very concerned that there was more damage to that plant than there was. And if you think of Postville, their population is 2,500, so to lose 600 jobs if they were to have closed would have been significant. So we were very pleased to see that things were moving forward there,” VanGundy says.
The fire was determined to be accidental.
