GARNER -- Twenty-one former ConAgra workers, a wife of a former worker and one contract worker have filed a lawsuit against the Town of Garner and more than a dozen contract companies.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Wake County Superior Court, claims the town and contractors were responsible for the June 9 blast, which killed three workers and one contractor. Dozens more were injured.
The workers who filed the complaint suffered burns and other injuries,according to the lawsuit.
ConAgra announced last month it will close its plant off of Jones Sausage Road by next year. The explosion damaged half the facility, and the company had shifted some Slim Jim meat-snack production to other sites. When it closes the Garner plant, it will transfer all Slim Jim production to a plant in Ohio.
In January, ConAgra Foods agreed to pay a $106,440 fine and improve safety at the plant as a result of the explosion. The state Department of Labor found 26 serious health and safety violations.
Investigators say the explosion occurred as a contractor was trying to light a gas-fired water heater inside a pump room at the plant Garner Mayor Ronnie Williams said Thursday he was disappointed the town was named in the lawsuit.
“I think we've gone above what was expected of us to do,” he said.
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