Kentucky tornado death toll increases, candle factory under investigation

A day after the governor of Kentucky upped the death toll from the rash of recent tornadoes that hit the state and four others, he also announced the candle factory where eight workers died was under investigation. The video above shows updates from Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY) on Monday and Tuesday, as well as some of the damage at the factory. On Monday, Gov. Beshear announced 74 Kentuckians had died in the tornadoes, up from the 64 he announced earlier in the day. That brought the total number of deaths from tornadoes in Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois and Tennessee to 88. Beshear had no new deaths to add at a news briefing Tuesday.

“If there’s good news it’s that our death count has not gone up since yesterday,” Beshear said. “We’re currently at 74 Kentuckians that we’ve lost. Again, each one a child of God irreplaceable in their community.”

In addition to announcing no change to the death toll, Beshear also announced the Kentucky Division of Occupational Safety and Health Compliance would conduct a review of what happened leading up to one of the tornadoes hitting Mayfield Consumer Products’ candle factory.

“So it shouldn’t suggest that there was any wrongdoing,” Beshear said. “But what it should give people confidence in, is that we’ll get to the bottom of what happened.”

While the investigation is routine whenever workers are killed on the job, some have had questioned why there were so many people were still working at the facility when it was leveled by a tornado. More than 100 people were working on holiday candle orders at the time. In a phone call with the Associated Press, Mayfield Consumer Products employee Haley Conder said her supervisor threatened to write her up if she left early. She also said the company did not keep its employees in the loop regarding the storm in the hours before the tornado hit.

“They had from 6:00 to 9:00 to allow us to go home, to tell us really what was going on and that we needed to prepare ourselves for the worst,” Conder said. “It was nothing like that. Not one supervisor told us what was really going on.”

A spokesman for Mayfield Consumer Products insisted employees were free to leave anytime before the tornado hit.

“Our company is family-owned and our employees, some who have worked with us for many years, are cherished,” Mayfield Consumer Products CEO Troy Propes said in a statement.