Koch Farms fined in worker death
Federal officials have fined Koch Farms for a safety violation that led to an explosion that killed a 25 year-old worker earlier this year at a Rockmart chicken feed mill.
Five other workers were hospitalized in the incident in February, according to an announcement today by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration, also known as OSHA.
JCG Farms in Rockmart, doing business as Koch Farms, violated safety standards that could have kept the accident from happening, the OSHA investigation concluded.
“This incident and this man’s death were preventable,” said Christi Griffin, OSHA’s area director in the Atlanta-West Office, in a statement today.
OSHA has proposed a $112,000 in fines in connection with the incident.
Federal inspectors determined that grain dust accumulated in the hammer mill area and that the dust ignited, causing the explosion. In addition to killing the worker and hurting five others, the explosion badly damaged the building and closed the feed mill, officials said.
On July 22, OSHA issued 15 citations to JCG Farms of Alabama LLC, doing business as Koch Farms of Collinsville, A to J Electrical Services and D. Sims Inc. for 23 safety and health violations.
“It is tragic that despite wide industry awareness of these hazards, that some employers remain unaware of the common hazards of combustible dust,” Griffin said.
JCG’s parent company is Koch Foods Inc., a leading poultry producer with headquarters in Chicago.
Among its conclusions, OSHA found that JCG "exposed employees to fire and explosion hazards due to the build-up of combustible dust, failed to post warning signs to inform workers of fire and explosion hazards (and) exposed workers to being caught in machinery."
