Unfounded Claims About Frequency and Causes of Food Plant Fires

Quick Take

Data on the number fires at food-processing plants in 2022 “does not signal anything out of the ordinary,” according to the National Fire Protection Association. Despite no evidence of foul play, unfounded rumors from conservative pundits suggest a rash of “mysterious fires” may be part of a plan to disrupt the food supply.

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There’s been no significant increase in fires at food production facilities so far in 2022, according to the National Fire Protection Association.

But that fact hasn’t stopped rumors from swirling online claiming that there’s been a suspicious increase and suggesting that there may be a plan to disrupt the food supply.

Data on fire incidents doesn’t support the claim.

“There have been approximately 20 fires in U.S. food processing facilities in the first 4 months of 2022, which is not extreme at all and does not signal anything out of the ordinary,” NFPA spokeswoman Susan McKelvey told us. “The recent inquiries around these fires appears to be a case of people suddenly paying attention to them and being surprised about how often they do occur. But NFPA does not see anything out of the ordinary in these numbers.”

The NFPA gets its data from the National Fire Incident Reporting System and its own data sets, neither of which provide numbers specific to food processing plants. But the data does provide annual averages on fires that could be related to those types of facilities,