Oregon bakery worker still critical after getting trapped in dough

EUGENE, Ore. – An industrial accident that left a bakery worker in critical condition after nearly suffocating in a tub of dough has raised concerns about plant safety, a union official said.

Brian Byrne remained in intensive care at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene on Thursday following Monday's accident at the new $42 million Williams Bakery plant.

The plant had its grand opening in August but has been operating since July. Workers at the plant have since expressed concerns about safety, said Gene Beaudoin, business agent for the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union Local 114 in Portland.

In particular, they have concerns about the fermentation room, where bread dough weighing hundreds of pounds slowly rises in 10-foot-long troughs while moving slowly along a conveyor, Beaudoin said. As the dough rises and fills with gases, it needs to be punctured or punched down to keep it from overtopping the trough.

At the old bakery near the University of Oregon, workers punctured the dough with knives. The new bakery was designed with air jets that were supposed to beat the dough down, but the system wasn't working because the air just scattered the dough around, "making a bigger mess," Beaudoin said.

So the air jets system was turned off, and workers manually deflated the dough with their hands or paddles, he said. "I believe that's what he was trying to do — knock down the sponge," he said.

On Monday afternoon, Byrne, a veteran of more than 30 years at the bakery, somehow got pinned between a machine guard made of Plexiglass and the trough of dough, according to the Oregon Occupational Health and Safety Division.

It was not known for how long Byrne was trapped face down in the dough and unable to breathe.

The state investigation is expected to take six to eight weeks, a spokesman said.

Todd Cornwell, Oregon bakeries general manager for Portland-based Franz Family Bakeries, which owns Williams Bakery, said he could not comment about worker concerns or about operations in the fermentation room.