HAMLET, N.C. (AP) _ A survivor of the 1991 Imperial Foods plant fire that killed 25 people helped break ground Thursday on a memorial park for one of the nation's worst workplace disasters.
Ada Blanchard was trapped for a time that day behind a loading dock door. The door finally opened and she got out, but many others couldn't escape the chicken processing plant because exits were locked or blocked to deter theft. Besides the dead, 56 people were injured.
Imperial Foods closed and the last of the building _ long a hulking, soot-stained reminder of the tragedy _ was torn down last year. Plant owner Emmett Roe was convicted of two counts of involuntary manslaughter and served 4 1/2 years in prison.
The park will sit on one edge of the property, with 25 granite stepping stones on a walkway surrounded by crepe myrtle trees. A granite monument at the end of the walk will remind visitors of human toll.
The plant closure also cost the area 100 jobs, and the park is part of a $1.7 million project to bring new economic life to the town on the South Carolina line, about 100 miles south of Raleigh.
Still, the memories of Sept. 3, 1991, persist.
Blanchard, now 51, was working inside the plant when a hydraulic line broke near a deep-fat fryer and fireballs blew through the windowless brick building.
``We were praying to get out. It was a scary experience, but spiritual. I could see Jesus' name come up from my forehead and then the letters turned into musical notes. I said, 'Lord, I'm committing my life to you. I accept death,''' she said.
Then, the door opened and someone pulled her through. Physically, she suffered only smoke inhalation, but there were other repercussions: She doesn't work, has been on antidepressant medication and gets disability benefits.
``I'm better in a sense, but it's still rough,'' she said.
Her former co-worker, Annette Zimmerman, also has emotional scars to go along with a metal brace that was implanted in her back to support artificial discs.
``The memories are still there because they are engraved in my heart,'' said Zimmerman, 37, who now works as a customer service representative at the newspaper in nearby Rockingham.
She called the memorial a blessing to the disaster's survivors.
``It doesn't heal the pain, but it lessens it,'' she said.
