Killing at least 25 workers and injuring 55, it was one of the worst industrial accidents in North Carolina history

The University of North Carolina Press has reissued Bryant Simon’s “The Hamlet Fire” in a paperback edition ($18.85).

Originally published in 2017 by The New Press, the book tells the story of the Sept. 3, 1991, blaze at a chicken processing plant in Hamlet, N.C., in Richmond County. At least 25 workers died and 55 were injured in the fire, one of the worst industrial accidents in North Carolina history.

Investigations later found that fire doors had been locked from the outside so workers could not escape, and that the plant had never received a safety inspection in its entire history.

In the aftermath of the disaster, the state of North Carolina doubled its staff of workplace safety inspectors under pressure from federal courts, and the General Assembly passed 14 new workplace safety laws.

Simon, a history professor at Temple University, sees the fire as emblematic of a larger problem. He argues that too much of the economy relies on low-wage, unskilled or semi-skilled labor. He criticized mass-produced fast food — the Hamlet plant specialized in chicken tenders — which is cheap and simple to prepare but contains too much fat and salt. And he argues that an economy of “cheap” is undermining worker protections erected in the New Deal.

Wilmington in Our State magazine

Our State magazine is always worth checking out, but the September issue has quite a bit of Lower Cape Fear content.

Wilmington author Philip Gerard contributes “Riding My Thumb,” memories of hitchhiking through coastal North Carolina (and much of the country) in the 1970s. Local bookstore owner Gwenyfar Rohler writes about restoring her parents’ old house on Market Street as a bed and breakfast.

A little farther afield, Marshele Carter describes how a local women’s club rescued Lake Wacamaw’s 1904 railway depot and turned it into a community museum.

Founded in 1933 by editor Carl Goerch, Our State has been a Tar Heel institution for decades. Now a monthly, it is published out of Greensboro. For details, visit OurState.com.

Ben Steelman can be reached at 910-515-1788 oir preacebsteelman@gmail.com.

Cover art for “The Hamlet Fire.” [UNC PRESS]