Some parts of a Maple Leaf Foods ham and bacon plant in Winnipeg are already back in business after a fire Friday morning.
City fire crews were called to the plant, on Lagimodiere Boulevard in the St. Boniface district, after a fire was spotted in a packaging area at about 10:45 Friday morning. The fire "was contained within one hour," the company said Monday in a release.
Officials believe the fire started on the roof when hot roofing materials ignited, the company said. The building was evacuated "immediately" and no one was injured.
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Damages, which "were largely contained to the electrical system," haven’t yet been completely tallied, the company added, but "preliminary estimates are significantly less than those cited in media reports."
The St. Boniface plant was announced in October 2011 as the subject of an $85 million expansion which will recast it as the Toronto food processing giant’s "centre of excellence" for ham, and as the largest bacon processing plant in Canada.
In mid-November, however, operations at the plant were set back by a fire which, according to local media quoting city fire officials at that time, started also on the roof and caused an estimated $2 million in damages.
The Lagimodiere plant’s expansion, scheduled for completion by mid-2013, is to see new ham and bacon smokehouses, coolers, packaging lines and other equipment added, along with 345 jobs.
Friday’s fire didn’t damage the expansion and "work underway to expand bacon processing at the facility will continue," the company said. However, some areas of the plant will need temporary repairs and the company predicted at least a week of work before those areas resume production.
Other areas of the Maple Leaf plant, such as its ham boning operations, have "resumed production on their normal schedules."
Related story:
Maple Leaf ham and bacon plant hit by fire, again, Aug. 10, 2012
