In 2021, Resilinc, a leading global supply chain monitoring and risk management firm that has been tracking disruptions at manufacturing plants for over a decade, was prompted to create a WarRoom to track the sudden uptick of supply chain disruptions.

The company issued 11,642 to alerts notifying its, which include today’s largest multinational organizations, about supply chain disruptions; an 88 percent increase in supply chain disruptions in a single year.

North America experienced the 5,417 supply chain disruptions, more than any other developed nation, followed by Europe which saw 2,838, and Asia, 2,128.

A grim fact remains: more factory fires occurred in 2021 than any other year in recorded history.

Nearly a quarter of the supply chain disruptions globally were attributed to manufacturing plants being set aflame, according to exclusive data compiled from Resilinc’s EventWatch monitoring database.

“Resilinc issued 1,946 Factory Fire alerts in 2021, an increase of 129 percent year-over year,” Resilinc communications director Melissa Gieringert told the Gateway Pundit.

The company attributes the sudden cause of fires to labor shortages caused by the pandemic.

“The uptick is due mostly to gaps in regulatory and process execution as well as shortage of skilled labor in warehouses. Factory fires are contributing to record breaking supply shortages. If a warehouse goes down for a month due to a factory fire the trickle-down effect is huge,” Gieringer said. ” If no one is checking that the fire sprinklers work, or if there are flammable materials – like cardboard – left on the floor because there is not enough staff available to clean up, it can turn into a bad scenario.”

“Take this example: In October 2020  a fire broke out at a semiconductor manufacturing plant in Japan; it took three days to put the fire out and when the dust settled, production lines were estimated to be down a minimum of six months,” she continued. “As a result, procurement teams – from the hi-tech to automotive sectors – were scrambling. The price of some chips went from $5 to $110 in a matter of days and ultimately cost sourcing organizations tens of millions of dollars. A risk assessment survey later revealed that the site did not have anyone checking the automatic sprinkler or fire suppression system. This fire also contributed to the current chip shortage that is significantly impacting carmakers.”

Resilinc has yet to release data showcasing the number of fires at manufacturing plants throughout 2022, but the Gateway Pundit has compiled a list documenting  the number of major fires that have erupted at food industry facilities to date in 2022:

1. 1/2/22 Firefighters battled a fire that burned down 75 percent of Van Drunen Farms Tu Thill plant in Momence, Illinois
2. 1/7/22 Damage to a poultry processing plant on Hamilton’s Mountain following an overnight fire in Oregon
3. 1/8/22 Two warehouses and a cold storage were destroyed in a fire at Raw Far Creamery in Fresno, California
4. 1/13/22 Firefighters worked for 12 hours to put a fire out at the Cargill-Nutrena plant in Lecompte, LA
5. 1/20/22 A fire broke out at Washington Potato Food Processing Plant in Warden, Washington
6. 1/31/22 Wiston Weaver Company, a fertilizer plant with 600 tons of ammonium nitrate inside caught on fire in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
7. 2/3/22 A massive fire swept through Wisconsin River Meats in Mauston, Wisconsin
8. 2/3/22 At least 130 cows were killed in a fire at Percy Farm in Stowe
9. 2/4/22 Diamond Walnut Growers, a food processing plant was set aflame and permanently shut down following the fire in Live Oak, California
10. 2/15/22 Bonanza Meat Company goes up in flames in El Paso, Texas
11. 2/15/22 Nearly a week after the fire destroyed most of the Shearer’s Foods plant in Hermiston
12. 2/16/22 A fire had broken at Louis Dreyfus Company, the US largest soybean processing and biodiesel plant in Claypool, Indiana
13. 2/18/22 An early morning fire tore through the milk parlor at Bess View Farm
14. 2/19/22 Three people were injured, and one was hospitalized, after an ammonia leak at Lincoln Premium Poultry in Fremont, Nebraska
15. 2/22/22 The Shearer’s Foods plant caught fire after a propane boiler exploded in Hermiston, Oregon
16. 2/28/22 A smoldering pile of sulfur quickly became a raging chemical fire at Nutrien Ag Solutions
17. 2/28/22 A man was hurt after a fire broke out at the Shadow Brook Farm and Dutch Girl Creamery
18. 3/4/22 294,800 chickens destroyed at farm in Stoddard, Missouri
19. 3/4/22 644,000 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Cecil, Maryland
20. 3/8/22 243,900 chickens destroyed at egg farm in New Castle, Delaware
21. 3/10/22 663,400 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Cecil, MD
22. 3/10/22 915,900 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Taylor, IA
23. 3/14/22 The blaze at 244 Meadow Drive was discovered shortly after 5 p.m. by farm owner Wayne Hoover
24. 3/14/22 2,750,700 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Jefferson, Wisconsin
25. 3/16/22 A fire at a Walmart warehouse distribution center has cast a large plume of smoke visible throughout Indianapolis.
26. 3/16/22 Nestle Food Plant extensively damaged in fire and new production destroyed Jonesboro, Arkansas
27. 3/17/22 5,347,500 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Buena Vista, Iowa
28. 3/17/22 147,600 chickens destroyed at farm in Kent, Delaware
29. 3/18/22 315,400 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Cecil, Maryland
30. 3/22/22 172,000 Turkeys destroyed on farms in South Dakota
31. 3/22/22 570,000 chickens destroyed at farm in Butler, Nebraska
32. 3/23/22 A massive fire erupted at a Pepsi Food Processing Plant in Piscataway, New Jersey
33. 3/24/22 Fire fighters from numerous towns are battling a major fire at the McCrum potato processing facility in Belfast.
34. 3/24/22 418,500 chickens destroyed at farm in Butler, Nebraska
35. 3/25/22 250,300 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Franklin, Iowa
36. 3/26/22 311,000 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota
37. 3/27/22 126,300 Turkeys destroyed in South Dakota
38. 3/28/22 1,460,000 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Guthrie, Iowa
39. 3/29/22 A massive fire burned 40,000 pounds of food at Maricopa Food Pantry in Maricopa, Arizona  
40. 3/31/22 A structure fire caused significant damage to a large portion of key fresh onion packing facilities in south Texas
41. 3/31/22 76,400 Turkeys destroyed in Osceola, Iowa
42. 3/31/22 5,011,700 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Osceola, Iowa
43. 4/6/22 281,600 chickens destroyed at farm in Wayne, North Carolina
44. 4/9/22 76,400 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota
45. 4/9/22 208,900 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota
46. 4/12/22 89,700 chickens destroyed at farm in Wayne, North Carolina
47. 4/12/22 1,746,900 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Dixon, Nebraska
48. 4/12/22 259,000 chickens destroyed at farm in Minnesota
49. 4/13/22 Fire destroys East Conway Beef & Pork Meat Market in Conway, New Hampshire
50. 4/13/22 Plane crashes into Gem State Processing, Idaho potato and food processing plant
51. 4/13/22 77,000 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota
52. 4/14/22 Taylor Farms Food Processing plant burns down Salinas, California.
53. 4/14/22 99,600 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota
54. 4/15/22 1,380,500 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Lancaster, Minnesota
55. 4/19/22 Azure Standard, the nation’s premier independent distributor of organic and healthy food, was destroyed by fire in Dufur, Oregon
56. 4/19/22 A fire broke out at Nutiren AG Solutions prompting evacuations in Leoti, Kansas
57. 4/19/22 339,000 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota
58. 4/19/22 58,000 chickens destroyed at farm in Montrose, Color
59. 4/20/22 2,000,000 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Minnesota
60. 4/21/22 A small plane crashed in the lot of a General Mills plant in Covington, Georgia
61. 4/22/22 197,000 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota
62. 4/23/22 200,000 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota
63. 4/24 Fire broke out around 3:45 am at General Mills manufacturing site in Cedar Rapids, Iowa
64. 4/25/22 Officials launched an investigation into the cause of a fire that broke out at Hormel Foods Facility in Suffolk, Virginia
65. 4/25/22 1,501,200 chickens destroyed at egg farm Cache, Utah
66. 4/26/22 307,400 chickens destroyed at farm Lancaster Pennsylvania
67. 4/27/22 2,118,000 chickens destroyed at farm Knox, Nebraska
68. 4/28/22 the basement of Agriway Partners was set ablaze in Kalona, Washington
69. 4/28/22 Egg-laying facility in Iowa kills 5.3 million chickens resulting in plant firing over 200 workers