Lawsuits follow deadly explosion at Tyson Foods facility in Georgia

According to the lawsuits, Nick Weeks and Joshua Harper were working for Classon Industrial Services and were preparing to replace a duct on the fifth floor of the poultry feed plant when they were engulfed in an explosion from below.

Weeks and Harper, who had not been using any tools or equipment, walked down about 190 feet of stairs with severe burns covering most of their bodies and were helicoptered to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, the lawsuits say.

Weeks, 46, died at Grady after 24 days and many painful procedures, his three children say in their complaint. They seek damages, including $3.3 million in medical bills for his care.

The lawsuit filed by Harper, 45, and his wife says his medical bills have surpassed $8 million and that he will need constant medical attention and treatment for the rest of his life.

Tyson Foods, reportedly the largest meat processor in the United States and one of the largest companies of its kind globally, did not respond Thursday to questions about the explosion and the complaints.

Mike Moran, an attorney for the Weeks and Harper families, said they hope the litigation prompts Tyson Foods and Keystone Foods to take steps to prevent other harmful accidents.

“We believe, as we laid out in our complaints, that Tyson and Keystone made some grave mistakes that led to this tragic incident,” Moran told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The incident happened a few weeks before Keystone Foods was cited in July 2025 by OSHA in relation to an earlier fatal explosion at another chicken facility in Camilla, a city of about 5,000 people around 30 miles south of Albany.

In December 2024, a woman died and two workers were seriously injured in an explosion at Tyson Foods’ chicken factory in Camilla, several miles from the poultry feed plant where corn and other raw materials are stored, crushed and made into pellets.

The fact that Tyson Foods and Keystone Foods had a fatal explosion at their chicken factory six months before the fatal explosion at their nearby poultry feed facility aggravates their negligence, Harper and Weeks’ children say in their lawsuits.

The companies violated long-held industry standards at the feed facility by failing to keep grain storage bins topped up to minimize oxygen and combustible dust, according to the complaints. They further allege that a mill on site was being operated when it should have been shut down while Weeks and Harper were working.

The explosion was caused when combustible dust in grain storage bins on the floor below Weeks and Harper ignited, blowing steel plate hatch covers about 30 feet into the air, the lawsuits allege.

“The massive explosion then vented into the room where Mr. Weeks and Mr. Harper were, rapidly filling it with fire and extreme heat, engulfing Mr. Weeks and Mr. Harper,” the complaints say. “The explosion was so powerful that it lifted the roof of the plant.”

Tyson Foods and Keystone Foods are liable for an “unreasonably dangerous and defective” facility that lacked appropriate venting and isolation barriers to prevent fire and explosions from spreading, the lawsuits allege. They further claim that Weeks and Harper were following all applicable industry safety standards, safe practices and protocols for performing their work.