Manufacturing, Manufacturing Plant

Okolona, MS – Machinery fire at furniture plant controlled with help from sprinkler system; No injuries

A fire at a United Furniture Inds. plant here on Saturday should cause only minor disruptions in production and delivery.  No one was injured in the blaze, which – while still under investigation – appears to have started with machinery United uses to move goods around the 800,000-square-foot plant that produces stationary upholstery.

No finished goods were damaged, and the fire should cause only a day of disruption at the plant, which already was scheduled to close a couple of days this week for a bi-annual inventory count.
Executive Vice President of Sales Jay Quimby said the situation turned out as well as it could have.

“First of all, nobody was hurt,” he said. “Our plant personnel reacted quickly, the local fire department responded immediately, and our sprinkler system and plant design functioned the way it should.

“We were already planning to shut down a couple of days for inventory, and this might add another day to that. There was no significant damage to the building.”

Quimby added that United will send out a letter to customers alerting them to the situation.