Production restarted at blaze-tragedy smolt plant
Normal production at most of a salmon smolt plant owned by Lerøy Seafood Group (LSG) is set to resume after a fatal fire at the weekend.
A 35-year-old subcontractor has been confirmed dead following a fire at the facility in Finnmark, northern Norway.
The man had been missing since the blaze and his body was found yesterday, a little before 19:00 CET, police said.
Maintenance work
The deceased was employed by Namdal Plast AS, which was carrying out maintenance work. At the request of his family his name has not been released.
As a result of the fire, 2.6 million smolts of 50 - 60 grams planned for deployment in April 2019 were lost.
LSG public affairs manager Krister Hoås said: “Production in the rest of the plant will now go as normal after a fantastic effort by our employees. As of today, it seems that other smolt will be able to follow the original plans. The plan to compensate for the lost fish is under preparation and will be ready in a few weeks.”
The dead fish will be taken care of as soon as possible, he said.
He said a boat is on its way, and that the plant and the fish that were lost are insured. As soon as the fire site is freed, Lerøy states that it will start the clean-up work.
Rebuilding plan
There is a plan for rebuilding the burned-down production department, he added.
LSG would assist the subcontractor, the police and other public bodies to find out what caused the blaze, Hoås told Fish Farming Expert’s sister site, Kyst.no.
Hoås praised the response of the emergency services.
“Our people in the plant complimented the work done and the collaboration across the agencies and with us,” he said.
Police operations manager Svein Erik Jakobsen told online publication iFinnmark that the dead man was discovered from the information the police had in mind beforehand.
“The body was in the first building that burned and collapsed, before building number two took fire,” he said.
