Explosion at Georgia Tyson Plant Leaves One Dead, Several Injured

Camilla, GA (WorkersCompensation.com) – An explosion in the early hours of Dec. 27 left one person dead and several others injured, officials said.

According to police reports, 61-year-old Bajarma Batozhatov of Las Vegas, Nev., was killed when an explosion happened in the boiler room of the Tyson Foods chicken processing plant in Camilla, Ga. According to Deputy Coroner Robbie Willis, Batozhatov was at the plant looking for work and had fallen asleep in a semi-tractor trailer driven by her husband, Tcyden Batozhatov. It wasn’t clear if Bajarma had been working at the plant.

Several other workers were injured during the explosion, although the exact number was not released. The plant employs about 1,600 people, officials said. Many were treated on site and some were taken to nearby hospitals for further treatment, although just how many people were working at the plant, and how many were seriously injured was not released.

“I know this is a big industry for Mitchell County. It was kind of only one portion of the plant that sustained damage,” Mitchell County Coroner Jamey Thompson said. “I know it’s a horrible tragedy for the victims that were burned and also to the victim that did die. My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone involved.”

Camilla Fire Chief Jamie Sullivan said the explosion caused a fire that was contained by Friday at 2:30 a.m. As a result of the fire, he said, a part of the building collapsed. Details are limited, but officials said they are investigating to determine the cause of the explosion.

A leader in the union that represents the plant’s workers said they were looking into the cause of the blast as well.

“We are working with the company and local emergency authorities to ensure that all the workers impacted are taken care of. The health and safety of workers must be a top priority at poultry plants, and we are working to assist anyone injured last night,” Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) said in a statement. “It is too early to tell what happened last night, but there must be a thorough investigation into this incident, and workers must be able to work safely in the facility.”

Katoria Peterson said she could see the blast from her house.

“We’ve never seen anything like this before. It was a loud boom, and then you see the flames. It was about five to ten minutes of burning,” Peterson told WTXL. “And then the ambulance and everybody left, but it burned for a few minutes.”

She said workers returned to the plant soon after the fire was out.

“I know many people that work there, and they’re from all around. Some of them are at work now,” she said Friday. “I don’t understand why they’re at work now because if you can smell it—I can smell it from my window—it’s just the smell of burning. So, if I can smell it, I know it’s worse over there.”

In a statement, Tyson Foods expressed its concern for the victims.

“We are deeply saddened by this tragic incident and are cooperating fully with the investigation,” the company said in a statement. “Our thoughts are with the affected families during this difficult time.”

Tyson Foods, and the meatpacking industry as a whole, have come under scrutiny recently for working conditions at its plants.

Last year, federal labor officials said Tyson was under investigation for possible violations of child labor laws for allowing children to work at one of its plants in Virginia. In 2022, 22-year-old Casen Garcia died on the job at a Tyson Foods plant in Joslin, Ill. While officials said he died of an enlarged heart, family members said he died at the plant due to working conditions.

Garcia died as his shift as a maintenance man for machines ended on July 9. His family believes other workers at the plant who said Garcia was shocked by an exposed wire hanging from the ceiling and was electrocuted. His mother, Rose, said it was 120 degrees in the basement where he worked and that Garcia had often complained about the conditions at the plant, and expressed his disbelief that no one had died in the basement yet.

Michael Felson, a former U.S. Department of Labor who now advises the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health said in an email that worker injuries at meat processing plants are higher than in other industries.

“Recent studies show that meat and poultry processing plants continue to have higher severe injury rates than other occupations also considered hazardous, like sawmills, building construction, and oil and gas drilling.” he wrote. “Workers are routinely and repeatedly exposed to moving machine parts that can cause traumatic injuries, including crushing, amputating, slicing, and burning. And the cumulative trauma of repeating the same motions thousands of times a day often causes severe and disabling musculoskeletal injuries, the result of what is known as ‘ergonomic hazards.’”

However, he said, those injury reports are likely lower than reality.

“Reports from the Government Accountability Office and other sources show that worker injuries are very likely to be seriously underreported,” he said, citing punitive point systems for workers and in-house clinics that may discourage workers from reporting injuries or missing work.

“Workers are often intimidated into not reporting work-related injuries and illnesses out of fear of being fired. So, even the high recordable injury rates these processing plants show are undoubtedly misleadingly low,” Felsen said.  “The situation is even worse than it appears.”

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