All of the Table Talk Pies employees at the Kelley Square facility were escorted out of the building safely without injury Wednesday morning after an oven caught fire at the facility, owner Harry Kokkinis confirmed to MassLive.
“All of our employees at the facility were able to make it out,” said Kokkinis. “And that is the most important thing.”
Kokkinis also confirmed it was an oven that caught fire at the facility Wednesday afternoon.
Fire officials told MassLive the fire then extended to a conveyor belt and continued up a vent pipe on the roof, where flames were visible at one point.
Around 1 p.m., firefighters had the blaze under control and were checking the building.
There are 130 full-time production staff that work at the Kelley Square facility. It is unclear how many of those employees will now be out of work.
All employees would normally be off tomorrow for Thanksgiving, Kokkinis said, adding that the company will work with the city’s Department of Public Health and Fire Department to assess the damage to the facility starting on Friday.
“There’s going to be a lot of clean up to do,” he said. “I’m sure we’ll be able to keep a number of people busy doing that.”
Kokkinis praised the Worcester Fire Department for their prompt response to the fire.
“I just want to say that the fire department did a great job for us to ensure that everyone was able to get out safely and that there wasn’t more damage than there was,” he said.
Table Talk Pies says it does not have a timeline of when it expects to be fully operational again, but will look for approval from the city’s Department of Public Health and Fire Department to isolate the specific area that was damaged and carry out production on other lines within the facility once the damage has been assessed and cleaned up.
In August, city officials broke ground at Table Talk Pies’ new 120,000-plus square foot bakery within the former Crompton & Knowles Complex in the Main South Neighborhood.
Table Talk says it plans to employ 180 full-time operation staff at the new location, including the 130 current full-time production staff at the Kelley Square bakery.
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