ERWIN, Tenn. — State authorities are investigating what happened at an Erwin plastics factory during Friday's catastrophic flooding, and the general manager of the building next door said he had to help some of the factory's employees escape.
Ron Kell is the general manager of Old Hickory Buildings, located along the Nolichucky River in Erwin just down the industrial road from Impact Plastics.
Impact Plastics officials said several of their employees died after the river near the business along the James H. Quillen Parkway flooded over into the plant's parking lot.
Kell said he used a tractor from his business to create a road to get people out of that parking lot and to safety.
Employees at Old Hickory Buildings were told to go home for their own safety before the flooding began, Kell said. He said he stayed at the building himself.
His coworker, Erick Castellón, said he was on the way out when he noticed people at Impact Plastics were stuck in the parking lot as the flood waters rushed in.
Castellón called Kell and the pair started to work to get people out of the parking lot and to safety. Kell said he got into his tractor to clear a path so Impact Plastics employees could go home, too.
Kell shared video of him driving his tractor through high floodwaters back to his business after rescuing people. All of the sheds and prefabricated structures on his lot were submerged in deep water.
"Everything's floating... buildings are flipped over," he said.
He said from his perspective Impact Plastics didn't take care of their employees, so he did his best to save as many lives as he could.
"I was saving all his employees, or we were, just doing what we had to do," Kell said. "They were left for me. Plus my employees were stuck behind his employees."
Kell said he has never met Gerald O'Connor, the owner of Impact Plastics.
10News has asked a spokesperson for the company multiple times for an on-camera interview, but the spokesperson hasn't responded directly to that request.
"I don't know him and I don't want to know him," Kell said. "But he needs to be held fully responsible for his employees. He had no escape plan. No disaster plan. He didn't care about them people. They're human beings. You don't know that."
Castellón said he also helped save several people.
"They should've helped all the workers," he said. "I didn't hear anything about that."
Both Kell and Castellón said there's a large Hispanic community in Erwin. Several of the people reported missing or dead are part of it.
They said they're both speaking out for them, so they are not forgotten.
"It's not who they are, it's who he is," Kell said. "He thinks he's better than everybody."
In a statement Monday, the company said most employees left immediately, but some "remained on or near the premises for unknown reasons." Multiple employees who survived the deadly flooding told 10News the plant and the company's statements weren't accurate.
Former employee Robert Jarvis told 10News he thinks Impact Plastics lied about letting employees leave with enough time to get out of the area safely last Friday.
"Why would you make us stay there?" he said in an interview Wednesday. "Why would you keep us there if you knew it was going to bad? If you were monitoring it why were we still there then?"
10News spoke to other employees and families of missing co-workers this week. One said the company told workers to leave about 15 minutes before the river flooding began rising up to the plant and forced them to try to find higher ground. One of Jarvis' coworkers, Jacob Ingram, said he and others nearly died after being swept away.
Ingram was among the ones who said they survived after clinging to a truck for hours and using rolls of plastic gas piping as a floating device.