Production has been halted at a Heinz factory in North Walsham, Norfolk after a major fire over the weekend.
The fire, reasons for which are currently unknown, began at around midnight on Friday night and was finally put out by around tea time the next day. It required 90 firemen to tackle the blaze.
Around 50-60 workers were on site at the time, out of a total payroll of 200, but all were evacuated and nobody was hurt in the incident. Heinz says the fire was largely contained to one production area of the site, which makes Aunt Bessie’s frozen potato products.
Today, management and admin workers are on site but production has been halted.
A Heinz spokesperson said: “Safety is always of paramount concern to Heinz and production of Aunt Bessie’s frozen potato products will not resume until a full assessment can be made of the incident.
“We are taking all possible actions to minimise the impact on customers and consumers, and have a senior management team in place managing every aspect of our full recovery plan.”
He said an investigation by Norfolk Fire & Rescue Service is “likely to take several days”.
As well as the Norfolk factory, Heinz has further UK and Ireland sites in Kitt Green, Telford, Worcester, Kendal and Dundalk which between them employ 3,000 people.
