While an electric pole fire Saturday night in the proximity of the Valley Protein rendering plant in Lewiston Woodville was a three-alarm incident, it was a major alarm for residents and Bertie County Commission Chair John Trent.
“We had a fire last night. An electric pole burned by the rendering plant. It was a three-alarm and Lewiston Woodville, Kelford and Roxobel all responded,” said Trent. “I got the call from emergency services. The power to the wells was all shut off. Wellons shut down their boilers, Darling stopped all production. They shut boilers down also.”
The fire was extinguished immediately and there was no critical damage reported. However, the timing of the fire was coincided with concerns voiced by Trent and Commissioner Ron Roberson over the past few weeks.
Trent has been concerned about access to the Lewiston Woodville Perdue Farms facility and other satellite companies that compose the industrial manufacturing complex on N.C. 308 in case of an emergency situation.
At last month’s U.S. Rep. Don Davis’ Town Hall meeting, Trent voiced concerns regarding hazardous material storage in western Bertie County and the inaccessibility to reach it. He revisited those concerns last week when N.C. Department of Transportation (NCDOT) representatives made a presentation to the Bertie County Commissioners highlighting future highway plans.
Both Trent and Roberson questioned why N.C. 11 had not been widened since the property was purchased, making the widening possible years ago.
Amanda Killian, the NCDOT representative at the meeting, couldn’t address the concerns, but claimed she would research the answer.
In a proactive move, Trent sent a request to U.S. Representative Don Davis for emergency service funding last week for Lewiston Woodville-Kelford.
The Perdue Farms facility in Lewiston Woodville is the largest Perdue Farms facility in the state. In 2021, the company achieved zero waste to landfill certification. The operation diverts 100 percent of its waste, nearly 19 million pounds in two years.
Trent and Roberson’s concern focus on the fact that N.C. 11 is the only access road connecting to N.C. 308 and the highway offers little in the form of emergency control.
“Imagine no county water lines down the road. No fire hydrants. This doesn’t make any sense. Perdue had a fire in a smaller complex in another facility. They had 25 fire trucks on the scene and they couldn’t contain it,” said Trent. “It would be impossible to get 25 fire trucks through here.”
Trent is not faulting Perdue or Darling Industries, but is seeking federal funds to fend off what could become a catastrophic situation due partly to the facility’s production of methane gas.
Trent also pointed to the fact that over 3,000 people travel N.C. 11 daily causing major congestion in case of an emergency.
“We don’t have the adequate equipment to help Perdue or Darling defend their property in case of an emergency,” said Trent. “We need fire equipment along with water lines and fire hydrants down Griffin Quarry Road. That’s what we’re looking for with the emergency funding request.”
“I don’t understand this,” said Roberson. “The state has had the property on N.C. 11, why don’t they complete the project?”
According to NCDOT Engineer Killian it may be coming up for review soon.
The responding fire departments could not be reached for their thoughts on access.
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