Smells from a truck hauling meat by-products seeped into Butler County Ford, causing five employees to be evacuated.

A fender bender on Main Street caused quite a stink for the employees inside Butler County Ford.

The truck was hauling animal parts leftover from grocery stores to a recycling facility.

The load was uncovered, and it was hot outside.

“It was disgusting,” said Gino Sabruno, manager at Butler County Ford.

“We had to evacuate the second and third floors.”

Just after 2 p.m. Tuesday, Sabruno said coworkers started complaining about a strange odor. A look out the window and the source of the smell was obvious: a large truck stopped at Main and Wayne, in the business’ loading zone. From the business, the workers could see the uncovered load in the truck.

“It was full of animal remains,” said Sabruno, who took photos of the truck’s contents.

Sabruno said he noticed that the truck and a car appeared to have been in a fender-bender collision at Main and Wayne streets.

Sabruno said he asked the truck’s driver to move the truck away from the Butler County Ford building. But the driver responded that he couldn’t move until he exchanged information with the driver of the other vehicle.

Sabruno said he called 911, and city police responded. However, police said they did not prepare a report on the accident.

In all, the truck was outside the business for about an hour, Sabruno said. During that time, about five employees in the detailing and body shop repairs departments were evacuated.

“It was humid, the air was heavy and it just kind of lingered,” Sabruno said. “Fortunately, it wasn’t in our showroom.”

According to the logo on the side of the truck, it is owned by Dar Pro Solutions, also known as Darlington Ingredients.

In response to an inquiry, Melissa A. Gaither, VP Investor Relations and Global Communications of the Texas-based company, issued the following statement: “Darling Ingredients takes the community concerns very seriously. Darling management is looking into the odor complaint and will work to mitigate any future issues.

“This service truck preforms an important waste removal service to the community and transforms residual meat by-products and expired meats from the grocery industry into usable feed and fuel ingredients acting as a critical control point for the food industry.

“Keeping highly degradable products out of the landfill and upcycling them into valuable ingredients is the nature of Darling’s business.

“Darling Ingredients Inc. is the world’s largest publicly-traded developer and producer of sustainable natural ingredients from edible and inedible bio-nutrients, creating a wide range of ingredients and specialty products for customers in the pharmaceutical, food, pet food, feed, technical, fuel, bioenergy, and fertilizer industries.

“With operations on five continents, the company collects and transforms all aspects of animal by-product streams into broadly used and specialty ingredients, such as gelatin, edible fats, feed-grade fats, animal proteins and meals, plasma, pet food ingredients, organic fertilizers, yellow grease, fuel feedstocks, green energy, natural casings and hides.

“The company also recovers and converts used cooking oil and commercial bakery residuals into valuable feed and fuel ingredients.

“In addition, the company provides grease trap services to food service establishments, environmental services to food processors and sells restaurant cooking oil delivery and collection equipment.”