Bacon Today reader Joakim Troëng alerted us of a breaking news story out of Scandanavia today.
An estimated 500 pigs were in an Edenberga, Sweden barn when a possible lightning strike ignited the structure. Approximately 250 pigs died in the blaze and at least 100 more were taken to receive emergency medical attention. A sad day for the bacon-loving world indeed.
See the original article (in Swedish):
http://www.svd.se/nyheter/inrikes/artikel_3211219.svd
We’ve had scares in the past about bacon buildings on fire. To this point however, we’ve been lucky that the reports were either hoaxes or misinformation.
Today we are not so fortunate. Residents near the Patrick Cudahy meatpacking plant in Cudahy, WI were evacuated due to potentially hazardous ammonia fumes as the plant was engulfed in flames. A state of emergency was declared in the town by mayor Ryan McCue.
It has been confirmed that at least some bacon-related items were endangered due to this fire. Chief Operating Officer Bill Otis “said the area where the fire started contains dry storage, packing materials, and production with microwave bacon technology.”
Investigations as to the cause of this blaze are still being investigated. Our thoughts go out to the 19,000 residents of Cudhay, WI. We hope the damage is repairable and the plant can get back to full scale production soon.
Thanks to reader Bacon Dan for bringing this story to our attention.
Read more at: http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/50015222.html
Okay, I’ll admit it…I was the friend who’s source sparked the “almost” article yesterday about a bacon emergency. I was told by a reliable source that there was “a bacon warehouse on fire in Pomona, CA.”
When I heard those words my heart sank. Poor bacon. Poor, poor bacon. I called Mr. B. right away with the news and he went on the hunt for the news item. Unfortunately, he came up dry.
Today, I learned exactly why the story was nowhere to be found. Turns out our usually reliable source needs a hearing aid. The radio program our source heard didn’t say “bacon warehouse on fire”. Turns out the announcer said “vacant warehouse on fire.”
Now, some folks will say it was an honest mistake. They will say live and let live. But fellow bacon lovers, we would like to take this opportunity to sincerely apologize for this unnecessary fright.
No bacon was harmed during the writing of this article.
A friend of a friend (strong source, I know) told me that there was a fire at a bacon factory in Pomona. I thought, “this would be the perfect subject for tonight’s article”. Try as I might, however, I couldn’t find anything during my exhaustive two-minute search of Google News, so I figured that it was either untrue, or just not yet newsworthy.
If, however, there is in fact a Pomona bacon factory fire, then I may just have become the first reporter to break the story, and of that I am (theoretically) immensely proud.
During my search for the fire, though, I did come across this little gem of a family business. The Bacon Equipment Company has been family owned and operated since 1947. An announcement on their home page proclaims, “Welcome to BaconFire.com, the new online home of Bacon Equipment Company. We specialize in the installation and maintenance of fire detection, alarm, and suppression systems for many special fire hazards. We have proudly served the Dallas and Ft. Worth areas for over 60 years. Please browse through our website and if you have any questions, please contact our office!”
Whether you’re a Boeing rep looking for a great aircraft-certified fire suppression system or a Texas State-certified Fire Marshall looking for a career, this could be the place for you.
Plus, they call themselves “Bacon”, so they’ve got that going for them.
– Mr. B
Popular Science writer Theodore Gray recently embarked on an experiment of supreme bacon significance. He created a “bacon lance” which is a form of “thermal lance” — a device typically made of iron to cut through scrap metal. This is something you just have to see to believe. Flaming bacon cutting through metal. Awesome.
You’ll notice during the video that Mr. Gray states that “it turns out ordinary American bacon does not have the structural integrity for this application.” He went on to call prosciutto “engineering grade bacon”. I think that just proves that prosciutto is inferior in taste to traditional belly bacon…do you agree? I mean come on, how can “engineering grade” taste good?
So I guess the moral of this story is that if the world’s iron supply is suddenly depleted, and we need to cut a bunch of scrap metal, then bacon will come forth to save the day. Or, we could just eat the bacon and forget about our iron deficiency, and set all that leftover prosciutto aflame.
Thanks to @bareknucks, @erong, and @cinnarose for alerting us to this fantastic story!
Read the original aricle on PopSci.com.
The following is an annecdote from a good friend of ours. Her name has been changed for the purposes of this story. Not that she’d mind us using her name, it just makes us sound that much more important to give her a pseudonym.
Mary is a freelance designer. She had just completed the first round of demos on a new project and invited the client to her home office for an early morning review of the initial designs. To make the client feel right at home, Mary made a pot of coffee, bought some muffins, and as a special treat — made some bacon.
Now if you know Mary you’re well aware of her reputation as a true fan of bacon. She fries it, grills it, and on this occasion, decided to sprinkle some secret ingredients on the candy of meats and bake the bacon in the oven. Let me say that, from experience, Mary’s baked bacon is one of the finest treats you can ever taste.On this occasion, however, things didn’t go quite according to plan.
The coffee was brewing, the muffins were invitingly arranged on a fancy plate, and the bacon was cooking at a steady temperature. Just then the phone rang and Mary learned that the client was running tremendously late. They decided to begin the design review session on the phone while the client battled L.A. traffic on the way to Mary’s house.
During the call, Mary’s phone (she has no home phone, only a mobile) began to get spotty reception so she stepped outside onto her front patio. Traffic was worse than the client anatitcipated, in fact they shut down the freeway and re-routed traffic onto side streets, and after about a 20 minute conversation both Mary and the client decided to reschedule the meeting for a later date. Frustrated, Mary walked back into her house, sat in the living room, and turned on the morning news.
As she watched the live coverage of the freeway closure she suddenly noticed the smell of something burning. No! The bacon!
Mary rushed into the kitchen to find her oven literally glowing red from the fire within. Apparently the bacon grease had started a fire in the over and the heat was so intense the metal of the oven was aglow. Quickly, she called the fire department and within minutes the rescue workers rushed through her door.
The oven contained the fire quite well. In fact, the six firemen that arrived didn’t have to do much work at all to get the situation under control. So of course, being the gracious host that she is, Mary offered them all coffee, muffins, and some stories about bacon.
Dave Peterson, proprietor of the Corralitos Market & Sausage Company, called in the fire department to save his bacon on September 16th of this year.
One of the four smokehouses behind his Corralitos, CA store caught fire and damaged a portion of his inventory.
“The bacon’s shot but all the sausage is good,” Mr. Peterson told reporters.
We mourn your loss Mr. Peterson. Its sad to lose such good bacon but we’re just glad your store is still ready to serve up that famous meat.
The Corralitos Market & Sausage Co. is open Monday through Saturday from 8:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m., and every Sunday from 9:00 a.m. To 5:00 p.m.
