Kentucky candle factory deaths: Why workers kept working during tornado? Know more

As the death toll in the ferocious Kentucky tornadoes rose to 74 on Monday, 8 out of the 110 workers at the Mayfield Consumer Product factory were confirmed dead as they kept making candles on Friday night when the massive storm bore down on the region. While the rescuers currently continue scouring the factory wreckage looking for signs of life under the metal debris, questions have been looming about why the workers were still at the manufacturing site even after they had a 20-minute buffer before the tornado hit.

“It appears most were sheltering in the place they were told to shelter,” Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said, exploring possible reasons for why the workers stayed at the factory, the Associated Press reported. Mourning the death of the eight ill-fated candle workers, Bashear added: “I hope that area was as safe as it could be, but this thing got hit directly by the strongest tornado we could have possibly imagined.”

What happened at Kentucky Candle factory?

The Mayfield Consumer Products factory is the third-largest employer in western Kentucky. About 110 workers were engaged in overnight shifts on Friday just before the biggest of the file of tornadoes pulled down the manufacturing unit, poisoning the workers with corrosive chemicals and penetrating twisted metals. As reported by AP, a company spokesperson later on Sunday informed that eight persons from the overnight shift were confirmed dead and eight others missing. As more than 70 workers from the shift were feared missing until Sunday,  Governor Bashear had started speculating that the death toll was expected "to exceed 100" in just Kentucky. However, as of Monday morning, more than 90 workers have been reportedly accounted for, showing that the fatalities will be much lower than expected.

[Before and after images of Mayfield Consumer Products factory. Image: Maxar technologies]

Speaking about the fatalities, company spokesperson Bob Ferguson told AP that "Many of the employees were gathered in the tornado shelter and after the storm was over they left the plant and went to their homes." He also added that “With the power out and no landline they were hard to reach initially.

As the Christmas week is about to set in, the factory had begun around-the-clock shifts to fulfil demands of scented candles. The manufacturing unit employs nearly half the town in and around Mayfield, which has a population of 10,000. County jail inmates to work at the factory. Shortly before the catastrophe, the company had also sent out hiring calls for more employees willing to work 10-12 hour shifts. Candles made in the factory also found their way on to prominent US retailers like Bath & Body Works, Ohio.

Following the mishap, the Ohio retailer extended condolences to their partner. "Devastated by the horrible loss of life at the Mayfield Consumer Products factory – a long-standing partner of ours,” Bath and Body Works said in a statement.

[A resident s a picture of the debris left behind by the powerful tornado. Image: AP]

Kentucky Tornado

The tumultuous outbreak of the "Quad State Tornado" ripped across four states - Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee and Arkansas, wrecking communities such as Monette, Arkansas, Mayfield and Kentucky. The file of tornadoes erupted in the darkness of the night on Friday and lasted until the early hours of Saturday. At least 1,000 homes were also destroyed by late Sunday afternoon. Kentucky district judge Brian Crick also passed away in the mishap, Bashear added that the state morgues were struggling to cope with the number of arriving bodies. Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, Governor Bashear informed that the trail of devastation was about 365km, which would surpass the 218 miles "Tri-State" tornado of 1925. Temperatures in Mayfield also dropped below freezing, with winds blowing up to an estimated 200mph.

(With inputs from AP)

(Image: AP)