Postville Fire Chief Jeffrey Bohr says the fire at at the Agri Star Meat Plant this week started accidentally in the laundry room and spread quickly.
“I’m guessing a 75% loss and structural damage, that’s not including the loss of products, you know, the prepackaging materials and stuff like that,” Bohr says. The fire burned for over three days and Bohr says 21 fire departments helped poured three and a half million gallons of water on it to save a portion of the building.
“Agristar is the largest employer in Allamakee County. And, of course, Postville, and so it’s like, we can’t afford to lose this entire building. You know, losing another business like that in town, it’s just gonna be economically, chaos,” he says.
Agri Star says it’s developing a plan to restart operations and rebuild.
(By Gavin McGough, Iowa Public Radio)