Eight Dead and Eight Missing in US Candle Factory Collapse

Eight employees of the candle factory in the American town of Mayfield have been officially declared dead. After severe tornadoes swept across the central United States Friday evening and Saturday morning, the factory collapsed.

Eight workers are also missing. Earlier reports had mentioned seventy missing persons.

“One is too many, but thank God there are many, many fewer,” Mayfield Consumer Products spokesman Bob Ferguson said on Sunday. The company employed 110 people.

Mayfield is located in the hard-hit state of Kentucky. Governor Andy Beshear previously said the tornadoes killed at least 80 people in Kentucky. He expected that the number of fatalities would probably exceed a hundred. However, it is not clear how many casualties at the candle factory he feared at the time of that estimate.

Factory spokesman Ferguson said on Sunday that the search in the rubble is still seen as a rescue effort and not a salvage operation. “We are still hopeful that we may be able to locate some of the eight missings,” he said.

Earlier, Beshear said it would be a “miracle” if anyone was found alive at the site. Many buildings in Mayfield have been completely destroyed.