Kentucky tornado: Candle factory workers threatened with being fired if they fled approaching storm, report says

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Workers at a Kentucky candle factory that was destroyed by tornados last week say they were told they would be fired if they tried to leave their shifts early, according to reports.

At least four workers at the Mayfield Consumer Products factory in Mayfield, Kentucky told NBC News that bosses refused them permission to leave the building even as warning sirens began to wail.

At least eight people died in the factory when it was torn apart on Friday night, part of a confirmed death toll that has already climbed to 74 with 100 still missing as of Monday afternoon.

Dozens more deaths have been confirmed across Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee and Illinois, where workers were trapped in an Amazon warehouse when it collapsed, killing six people.

A spokesperson for the company categorically denied that employees had been threatened with firing or told not to leave.

Factory worker McKayle Emery, 21, who was trapped under rubble for six hours, told NBC from her hospital bed that staff had first asked to leave not long after sirens sounded around 5.30pm, when the immediate danger seemed to have passed.

She said she overheard managers telling a group of workers that "if you leave, you’re more than likely to be fired", adding herself: "I heard that with my own ears." Another employee, Latavia Halliburton, backed that story up.

Worker Haley Conder, 29, said about 15 people asked to go home and were initially told that they should not leave because it was unsafe, but then were told to go back to work afterwards.

She quoted managers as saying "you can’t leave, you can’t leave, you have to stay here", adding: "The situation was bad. Everyone was uncomfortable."

Forklift operator Mark Saxton, 37, likewise said: “We should have been able to leave. The first warning came and they just had us go in the hallway. After the warning, they had us go back to work. They never offered us to go home.”

A spokesman for Mayfield Consumer Products told NBC: “It’s absolutely untrue. We’ve had a policy in place since Covid began. Employees can leave anytime they want to leave and they can come back the next day.”

He denied that managers told any employees they would lose their jobs if they left early, and that all managers followed disaster protocols that comply with federal emergency management and health and safety guidelines.

Autumn Kirks, a team leader at the factory who was working that night, said nobody’s jobs had been threatened if they left early.