Cheese factory catches fire, temporarily shutting down company

HUMBOLDT, Tenn. — The air in Humboldt hangs thick with smoke, as Bongards Creameries employees learned they will not be returning to work anytime soon.

“They grabbed seven or eight fires extinguishers and tried to put it out, but it went up so fast they couldn’t stay ahead of it,” Vice President of Operations, Brent Jewett said.

Jewett said a welder was working around a tarp, separating the old a new building, when the tarp caught fire.

The blaze even burned their new equipment and a few truckloads of cheese.

“But it didn’t get into the main part of our plant, I think we’re fortunate that way,” Jewett said.

Investigators said the back part of the building suffered the most damage, and the flames melted a hole in the roof.

Humboldt Fire Chief Chester Owens said one firefighter was injured and taken to a local hospital.

“We had a full wall flames coming from the north end of the building and we dispatched all our firefighters,” Owens said.

Kevin Brason said he has worked as at the company for six months and pulled up to work Thursday afternoon to find everyone outside the building.

“We’re hoping to get up and running as soon as possible, because being out of work like this is going to make it feel like we’re out of a job,” Brason said.

And while the blaze is forcing Jewett to temporarily shut the doors on the company, he hopes to get up and running soon.

“It’s unfortunate but we’ll get through it, and make the best of it and get back to supplying our customers,” Jewett said.

The fire chief said it took about 30 minutes to bring the fire under control.

Jewett said the next step is to clean up the smoke damage on the inside of the building so it does not affect their packaging materials or the remainder of the cheese. Jewett also said many employees have volunteered the help clean up the factory over the next few days.

He says they expect the factory to be closed from a few weeks up to a month.