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August 24, 2009
GRANDVIEW - Every day, Catarino Macas wakes up at 4:30 in the morning, dons his jeans and long-sleeved work shirt and drives from his Prosser home to work in Sunnyside.
There, he mows lawns and does maintenance work at the Cristo Rey Apartments. He considers himself lucky to have a job, since he's one of about 150 workers who lost their jobs last year when a blaze ravaged the Wild River Foods plant in Grandview.
In July 2008, an electrical short caused a fire that not only destroyed the plant at 206 Avenue A, but also took jobs, hurt nearby businesses and punched a massive dent in city coffers.
Since then, many of the workers haven't been as lucky as Macas, 43. No one tracked what happened to most of them, but local officials say that a number of workers moved to places such as Wenatchee to find work, while others returned to Mexico.
Meanwhile, the city lost $900,000 in water and sewer revenues, which represented about 25 percent of what it collected citywide. Grandview also lost about $70,000 in tax revenue.
"It was one of those things that happened," City Administrator Scott Staples said earlier this month. "It was tragic."
The loss of the plant, which mainly produced potatoes and french fries, was not only a blow to the employees, but also to workers, said Omar Mancinas, a Sunnyside resident who worked there for 14 months until the fire.
Though he had no experience as a machine operator, Mancinas, 26, said he started at $12 per hour, and by the time of the fire he was making $14.
"It was good job. It paid well," said Mancinas. "We need more jobs like that, permanent warehouse jobs, not just temporary work."
But when Lamb Weston merged with the Wild River's owner, Ochoa AG, the Grandview plant was not part of the deal, said Lamb Weston spokeswoman Marti DeMoss.
"We have no plans of building a plant there," DeMoss said.
Wild River bought the plant for $3.8 million just four months before the fire, according to property records.
Macas recalled that he worked for other canning companies for 14 years before he was lured by the $17 per hour salary as a line manager.
"I saw how the first potatoes came out of that plant," he says, fondly. "I bagged the first fries that came out."
Lacking experience, Mancinas said that the pay and location of Wild River were enticing.
Despite different owners over the years, the plant was known as a place where many women were employed. Under Wild River, things were no different. Among the women was Mancinas' mother, Leticia Mancinas.
The fire started about 9 a.m. July 1, 2008, as about 45 workers labored on the morning shift, fire officials said.
"I heard a noise ... then the alarms went off and everyone ran outside," Macas said.
About 60 firefighters responded and found clouds of thick, black smoke filling the sky. No injuries were reported.
Thirteen months later, an empty lot is all that remains. It took months for crews to clean up the charred remains.
Agencies such as state WorkSource aided many workers after the fire, Mancinas said. He spent four months unemployed, but he now works as a forklift operator for Conrad & Gilbert in Grandview.
Leticia Mancinas managed to find a job sooner. She commutes daily to Paterson, where she works at a ConAgra warehouse.
As for Macas, he went months unemployed before his daughter told him about the apartment job. Roberto Matus, who lives at the apartments, described him as a very good worker.
Macas said that the fire was a tough blow for him, as a father of five with a mortgage to pay.
He lost his tools in the fire and says Wild River never repaid him for that loss. He added that many of his hopes and dreams were also lost in the fire.
"In a year, 14, 15 years of my life came crashing down," Macas said.
The city also took the brunt of the aftermath, Staples said. It had to cut back on $100,000 of spending for all kinds of city services, he said.
In spite of everything, Staples hopes Grandview will undergo a renaissance. The city recently received $4 million in federal funding to revitalize the downtown area, which is next to where the Wild River plant used to stand.
"I am hopeful that once this economy turns around, and the climate is more conducive to development in general that this property (Wild River) at some point it will be redeveloped," Staples said. "This city will be there to do what we can to be supportive."
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