Ammonia leak at Farbest Foods sends one worker to hospital

A chemical leak at Farbest Foods in Huntingburg sent one worker to the hospital Tuesday morning after firefighters arrived to find the ammonia release had already been valved off.

The Huntingburg Fire Department said crews were dispatched to the 4600 block of 400 West just before 10:30 a.m. Central Time after reports of an ammonia leak. Three people reported minor irritation, and one person had difficulty breathing and was taken to the hospital.

The quick shutdown likely kept the incident from becoming more serious, but ammonia is treated as a high-hazard chemical for a reason. CDC guidance says exposure can damage the skin, eyes, throat and lungs and can cause coughing and burns, while OSHA says 300 parts per million is immediately dangerous to life and health. ATSDR says even relatively low airborne concentrations can trigger rapid irritation of the eyes, nose and throat.

Farbest Foods’ Huntingburg operation sits at 4689 S. 400 West and is listed by USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service as establishment P7769, a USDA-inspected plant in Huntingburg, Indiana 47542-0240. The company says it is one of the largest turkey companies in the United States, which makes any chemical release there a matter of both worker safety and community concern in Dubois County.

A separate local account described the incident as an anhydrous ammonia gasket leak and said four people were treated by medics, with three treated on scene and a fourth transported to the hospital. That account matches the fire department’s report that responders were able to get to the plant after the leak had already been controlled, but still had to treat exposed workers and secure the site.

No broader evacuation was reported, and there were no additional injuries noted beyond the workers who were affected during the release. Even so, the call underscores how quickly an ammonia problem can turn into a hospital transport, and why plant response systems, emergency crews and nearby residents all have a stake in how fast a leak is contained at one of Huntingburg’s major employers.