In a Small Kentucky Town, the Candle Factory Was a Lifeline for Its Workers

MAYFIELD, Ky. — Hispanic workers referred to the big, boxy mill connected the westbound broadside of municipality arsenic Las Velas, for the merchandise it turned out: candles. Employees brought the calming fragrances — lavender, vanilla — location with them, imbued successful their clothes. Some preferred it to the adjacent section chickenhearted works oregon farms, wherever the enactment was backbreaking.

“I thanked God for the opportunity,” said Flor Almazan, a Guatemalan migrant who was hired for $7.50 an hr 3 years agone to spot wicks successful small jars of wax.

But past Friday, a swarm of tornadoes that plowed crossed six states reduced the mill to rubble, trapping dozens of workers including Ms. Almazan, who was buried live for hours, her cries for assistance joining a chorus of despair. Eight radical died, and Mayfield Consumer Products, the institution that operates the plant, is facing aggravated scrutiny successful the storm’s aftermath.

Angry survivors person asked wherefore supervisors did not cancel the Friday nighttime shift, fixed the ample warnings that tornadoes were apt to rotation up successful the area. Some employees person claimed that supervisors threatened to occurrence workers if they near their shifts aboriginal arsenic the tornadoes approached — an accusation the institution denies. On Thursday, immoderate of those workers filed a suit accusing the institution of “flagrant indifference” for refusing to fto them spell location early.

“A batch of radical relied connected it to marque a living,” said Jaime Massó, a pastor whose tiny church, Primera Iglesia Bautista Hispana, serves a flourishing Hispanic community, including a increasing fig of undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Guatemala who person travel to bash Mayfield’s humble work. “It’s leaving a large spread successful the community. A batch of them are disquieted astir however are they going to marque a surviving without Las Velas around. They are scared.”

The mill was located conscionable extracurricular of downtown Mayfield, a working-class metropolis of 10,000 successful agrarian occidental Kentucky. The assemblage was erstwhile graced with aged Victorian storefronts but was transformed by the tempest into thing similar a postwar postcard. The octagonal timepiece operation was sheared disconnected the imposing region courthouse. The tidy grid of streets astir it, laid retired successful the 1820s, present cuts done matchstick heaps of disorder.

For astir 2 decades, Mayfield’s candle mill was a showcase of homespun entrepreneurialism. A section businesswoman named Mary Propes founded the institution successful 1998 successful her garage, years aft Mayfield’s signature 20th-century product, men’s clothing, had flickered retired oregon moved overseas. Helped by tariffs connected inexpensive imports from China, the mill grew to merchantability candles to the large American retail concatenation Bath & Body Works. By the clip of the tempest it had 550 workers, making it 1 of the largest employers successful the county.

More recently, though, it has struggled to find capable employees. Shortly earlier the tornado hit, the institution was advertizing for workers for 10- to 12-hour shifts with mandatory overtime. On the nighttime of the tornado, 7 inmates from the Graves County jailhouse were moving successful the mill arsenic portion of a labour statement with section government. (The inmates survived but the jailer watching implicit them was killed.)

State and section officials person praised the low-tech home shaper for the opportunities it provided to scores of section residents. But those opportunities had limits.

Wages started astatine $8 per hour, adjacent to minimum wage, and did not spell overmuch higher than that for galore workers, a concession to the brutal realities of the planetary labour market.

For immoderate successful Mayfield, a candle mill occupation was the benignant held connected to until thing amended came along, oregon until life’s vicissitudes dictated different directions.

Nicole Byassee, 46, the manager of a convenience store, said she had done 3 stints astatine the candle mill implicit the years. She said it was a well-run place. She made friends there, and she liked however she could odor the fragrances from her location a mile away.

She discontinue her past occupation astatine the factory, arsenic a prime inspector, successful the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, erstwhile she was caring for her ailing father-in-law astatine home. “I couldn’t spend to drawback it myself,” she said.

At astir 5:30, a half-hour into her shift, sirens blared implicit the accumulation line. She hustled to a harmless area, packed elbow to elbow with astir 100 chap workers, she said successful Spanish. They huddled determination nervously for a fewer minutes until supervisors told them to instrumentality to their stations. Christmas was coming. There were large orders to fill. But much storms were coming, too.

Elijah Johnson, 20, showed up for enactment astatine 6 p.m. He did not recognize wherefore supervisors had not canceled the nighttime shift.

As the informing pings of cellphones rang out, helium and others asked to permission work. He said his supervisor told him that helium had missed excessively overmuch enactment already and would suffer his occupation if helium near connected this night.

“I kept saying, ‘Even with the upwind similar this we can’t leave?’ and the supervisor kept saying, ‘No,’” Mr. Johnson said. “When much radical asked if they could leave, they were told that if they left, determination would beryllium consequences. I was told that if I near I would beryllium terminated.”

Bob Ferguson, a spokesperson for Mayfield Consumer Products, called the accusation that workers would beryllium fired if they near “totally untrue” and “ridiculous.”

He said that until astir a twelvemonth ago, employees who near their displacement aboriginal would accumulate points, and could beryllium fired if they racked up enough. But arsenic Covid-19 surged, helium said, the institution eliminated the points strategy and allowed workers to commencement and halt their shifts astatine volition without penalty, thing helium said employees regularly did.

Shortly aft 9 p.m., the sirens went disconnected again. Ms. Almazan turned to a idiosyncratic adjacent to her and asked if this mightiness mean they would beryllium leaving enactment early. The pistillate nodded yes.

Ms. Almazan called her 11-year-old daughter, Cristina Pastor, and told her, “Mija, I’m coming home.” The small girl, proceeding the upwind slam the walls of her home, asked her if she was OK. “We are OK,” she replied. “We are successful a harmless room.”

Then came a roar. The factory’s extortion peeled disconnected similar a portion of paper. The walls collapsed, trapping the workers. Ms. Almazan twisted her look toward a spread successful the bricks, trying to breathe. A pistillate adjacent her who had been crying went quiet, and past went stiff.

“I thought I was going to dice soon too,” she said. Her hubby and lad had been trying to telephone her. She could perceive the telephone ringing but could not scope it done the rubble. Her household rushed to the site, joining others who had travel to find their loved ones.

Days aft her ordeal, Ms. Almazan said it was inactive achy to determination her limbs. Sleep was hard to travel by. Each clip she closed her eyes, she said, she was backmost nether the rubble, proceeding those astir her shriek for help.

“What happened was precise hard to forget,” she said.

Still, Ms. Almazan said, she wished thing much than to spot Las Velas instrumentality to Mayfield and employment radical similar her erstwhile again. If the mill reopened, she said she would gladly return.

“I depended connected that work,” she said, “and not having it is scary.”

Tariro Mzezewa and Vimal Patel contributed reporting. Susan C. Beachy contributed research.