Tyson Foods, the US meat giant, has pledged to rebuild a beef plant “partly destroyed” by a fire on Friday (9 August).

The company said officials were still assessing the damage to the facility in Holcomb, Kansas, so could not give a timetable for when construction could start.

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“We’re taking steps to move production to alternative sites,” Steve Stouffer, group president of the company’s Tyson Fresh Meats business, said. “Tyson Foods has built in some redundancy to handle situations like these and we will use other plants within our network to help keep our supply chain full.”

Tyson operates six plants in Kansas, employing more than 5,600 people. Reuters has reported some 3,800 work at the Holcomb site.

“This is a difficult time for our team members and their families, and we want to ensure they’re taken care of,” Stouffer said. “Today, we will notify our full-time, active team members that they’ll be paid weekly until production resumes.”

Tyson has not disclosed how the fire may have started and the company has yet to return a request for comment at the time of writing.

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It has said no staff were injured.

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