The company plans to move some of the affected employees to another location about 10 miles away, but cannot relocate all of them, the letter said.

“Those employees who are not transferred to the new facility will be fired,” the letter read.

A total of 501 people work in the candle factory, of which 250 jobs are being transferred, the letter said. The remaining workers are being laid off, the letter said.

Many rescuers climbed inside looking for survivors, while Hayden and others stayed outside to help people climb out of the rubble.

Gov. Andy Beshear said the storm, which killed at least 70 people in the state, was “the worst tornado event in Kentucky history.”

Amos Jones, a Washington, D.C. attorney representing some of the workers, said the lawsuit is based on Kentucky’s equivalent of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) statute. He told CNN that the complainant was seeking financial compensation of an “unspecified amount.”

Mayfield Consumer Products did not respond to CNN’s request for comment on the lawsuit. A spokesman for the company that owns the plant previously said the company had spoken to supervisors who worked that night, and they both denied that any employees had been told they would be fired if they left.