Nearly all local fire departments rushed to the scene of a large fire at National Shrimp Co. in LaCoste this past week, which sadly destroyed the main building located off CR 583 . In a letter published by Newswire, the company noted that the fire marshall is conducting an investigation, and it is believed that the fire was caused by a natural gas leak. The fire happened on Tuesday, March 17, and firefighters from LaCoste, Castroville, Devine, Natalia, and Lytle VFDs did their best to contain it.
If you aren’t familiar with the business in LaCoste, NaturalShrimp, Inc., is a publicly traded aqua-tech Company, headquartered in Dallas, with production facilities located near San Antonio, Texas. The Company has developed the first commercially viable system for growing shrimp in enclosed, salt-water systems, using patented technology to produce fresh, never frozen, naturally grown shrimp, without the use of antibiotics or toxic chemicals. NaturalShrimp systems can be located anywhere in the world to produce gourmet-grade Pacific white shrimp.
CEO Gerald Easterling recently issued a notice to shareholders regarding the business.
“As many of you are now aware, our shrimp family has been dealt a blow in already uncertain times. We are sad to report this morning that a fire has destroyed the main building at our La Coste, TX facility. The main building housed our nursery, grow-out tanks, and EC machinery. Luckily, the fire did not affect our offices, greenhouse, or maintenance buildings. It is believed at this time that the fire was caused by a natural gas leak near the boiler room. The fire marshal is conducting an investigation and we will report the findings when they become available.
The future of Natural Shrimp, Inc remains very bright. We believe the insurance proceeds will assist the company to reconstruct a newer, state of the art building in which to house our tanks and equipment. Our shrimp, which numbered approximately 1.5M PL’s, were growing on schedule and were extremely healthy. Our equipment and new tanks were operating efficiently and as we had expected. All of our subsidiary initiatives continue to do well and we expect to announce the status of those initiatives shortly.
We appreciate the support we continue to receive and are looking forward to better days ahead.”
