CUDAHY, Wis. – Smithfield Foods, Patrick Cudahy's parent company, has reached a $208 million settlement with its insurance carriers regarding a fire that destroyed part of its meatpacking plant in a Milwaukee suburb in 2009, according to The Associated Press. This settlement far exceeds the estimated $50 million damage to the plant as a result of the July 2009 fire, an earnings report filed by Smithfield Foods Inc. states.

Area fire departments needed days to put the fire out, which began when a neighbor near the plant set off a military flare to celebrate the Fourth of July. The flare landed on the roof of the plant.


Insurance money was used to recover the value of the property and also the cost of production interruptions, according to The Journal Sentinel. Approximately 1,400 workers were displaced by the fire, but almost all returned to work within three months. No one was hurt in the blaze.