CAMILLA, Ga. (WALB) - A dozen Tyson Foods employees were injured in the Camilla plant explosion in December. Two of those employees are still recovering from severe injuries.

While 10 employees who sustained minor injuries from the explosion are back at work, one employee is recovering at home and another employee who is suffering from severe burns is still in the hospital. That’s according to Chelsea Connor, a Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) Representative.

“Tyson has been nothing but working with us through this process and from the looks of it, it’s really just an unfortunate tragedy here,” she said.

A tragedy that took the life of Bajarma Batozhatov.

On Dec. 27, 2024, officials say she was asleep in her husband’s semi-truck when flames erupted from the building killing the 61-year-old.

Three weeks after the explosion, U.S. Senators Reverend Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, alongside Congressman Sanford Bishop, Jr. sent a letter to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) pushing for transparency throughout their investigation.

“We just want to join in the effort to make sure whatever the problem was is corrected and that going forward, we don’t have an incident if we can pinpoint what the cause was,” Bishop said.

Preliminary investigations show a boiler is the suspected cause of the explosion. Connor said the union was able to help backpay employees impacted by the explosion and will continue to work with Tyson Foods to uphold a safe work environment.

“We want to make sure that there are watchdogs out there making sure that workers are safe in this industry that has a long reputation of having health and safety issues, but we do believe this to be just an accident with no malintent,” she said.

Right now there is no set time for when OSHA’s investigation will wrap up. WALB reached out to Tyson Foods for a comment but is waiting to hear back.

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