Pfizer factory where a quarter of country’s injectable meds are created is destroyed after a tornado with 135mph winds tears through North Carolina town leaving a path of carnage in its wake
- A tornado swept through the town of Rocky Mount, 60 miles east of Raleigh, on Wednesday
- A Pfizer factory which stores large quantities of medicines was hit: 50,000 pallets of goods were strewn across the site, damaged by rain and wind
- Shocking aerial footage showed the roof of the Pfizer site crumpled and twisted like a discarded tissue
A Pfizer factory in North Carolina was destroyed by a tornado on Wednesday, leaving 50,000 pallets of medicines strewn across the site in the rain and the roof crumpled and twisted by 135mph winds.
The tornado begun in Nashville, North Carolina, and swept north east through Rocky Mount, 60 miles east of Raleigh, where it devastated the Pfizer facility.
It ran out of steam in Scotland Neck, 40 miles from where it begun.
There were no reports of any injuries.
Keith Stone, sheriff of Nash County, said the warehouse bore the brunt of the damage, adding: ‘I’ve got reports of 50,000 pallets of medicine that are strewn across the facility and damaged through the rain and the wind.’
The Pfizer facility in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, was devastated by a tornado on Wednesday
Aerial photos give a sense of the scale of the damage, showing parked cars in front of the site
No one was injured in the tornado, with workers running to shelters as the winds howled overhead
A Pfizer employee told ABC 11 that they all rushed into the safety zone on hearing of the impending storm.
He said the lights flickered inside the facility, and then came a sound ‘like a bomb went off.’
The noise lasted only around a minute or 90 seconds.
Pfizer said the 250 acre site, with 1.4 million square feet of manufacturing space, ‘is one of the largest sterile injectable facilities in the world’.
Nearly 25 percent of all sterile injectables used in U.S. hospitals are produced at the site, and 400 million units leave the site annually.
It also produces vials, syringes, IV bags and bottles of anesthesia, analgesia, therapeutics, anti-infectives and neuromuscular blockers.
‘We are assessing the situation to determine the impact on production,’ the company said.
‘Our thoughts are with our colleagues, our patients, and the community as we rebuild from this weather incident.’
