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Godshall’s plant recovers from fire with new meat smokers

NORTH LEBANON TOWNSHIP, LEBANON COUNTY, Pa. —  It’s a meaty story out of Lebanon County, Godshall’s meat plant recovers from a destructive fir...

NORTH LEBANON TOWNSHIP, LEBANON COUNTY, Pa. --  It's a meaty story out of Lebanon County, Godshall's meat plant recovers from a destructive fire with the delivery of several smokers.

The three day event began with shutting down the plant, removing the roof and bringing in a giant crane.

Things are looking up at Godshall's after a devastating fire in February.

Godshall's vice president of manufacturing Ron Godshall said "we lost half of the smokehouse in the company. Fortunately, no one was injured, and there was no other damage done to the building beyond the smokehouse area."

The million dollar recovery is through the roof with this delivery of six new meat smokers.

Godshall's assistant plant manager Mike Blecker said "we were struggling with three ovens. We had some smokehouse crews that were on a seven day rotating schedule, the ovens were running 24 hours, seven days a week, it was a big feat to keep the demand of the product line."

"We continue to make the Lebanon bologna and Ring bologna that are popular in this area," Godshall said.

Putting the smokers back in place means much more than just meat.

"The difference between serving our customers or not," Godshall said.

North Lebanon Township Supervisor Ed Brensinger said "they're bringing jobs to our township, our county, they're also keeping on producing a product that I grew up on."

The smokers haven't been turned on yet, but the people who work there are already fired up.

"When I think about the day we had the fire, and we all met here and everything was doom and gloom, and where do we go from now, I mean our team has done a fantastic job of making this happen," Godshall said.

"It's great to see things come back to normal. We work for a really good team of people, a lot of people worked together to make this happen today, and continue the growth in the future," Blecker said.

Fire struck the plant six months ago on February 6th. The staff looks forward to firing on all cylinders and lightning up those new smokers in about four weeks.

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