Worker fatally electrocuted while cleaning in Georgia chicken facility, coroner says
A contractor died Sunday after he was electrocuted while working at Perdue Farms in Perry, Georgia, officials say.
Antonio Ramirez, 23, was cleaning an area of the chicken processing plant called the “hot room” around 5:30 a.m. when he was electrocuted, Houston County Deputy Coroner David Gabbard told McClatchy News.
A supervisor noticed he was bent over as if he was looking for something and went to check on him.
But as the supervisor got closer, he felt a shock and realized Ramirez was being electrocuted, Gabbard said. He backed up, turned off the power and called 911 as he started CPR on Ramirez.
EMS responded to the plant and took Ramirez to a hospital in Perry, where he was pronounced dead around 6:30 a.m. Sunday, according to Gabbard.
A Perdue spokesperson told McClatchy News that Ramirez was a contractor working for a company that cleans the facility’s production equipment and that the company is “deeply saddened” by his death.
“The safety of our workers and facilities is always Perdue’s top priority, and we are taking the matter very seriously,” the statement said. “We are in communication with local authorities and the contracting company, and our deepest condolences go out to his family, friends and co-workers.”
Gabbard said his body was transported to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for an autopsy.
No other information was available as of Monday.
Perry is in central Georgia, about 30 miles from south of Macon.
This story was originally published August 9, 2021 at 7:46 AM with the headline "Worker fatally electrocuted while cleaning in Georgia chicken facility, coroner says."
