Dutailier fire does little damage
Michael J. Knell -- Furniture Today, March 10, 2008
St-Pie, Quebec — A fire at its wood glider rocker plant here last week did no major damage and won't affect shipments to retailers, Dutailier Group President Fernand Fontaine said in a statement issued Tuesday.
He said the fire is believed to have begun at about 8 p.m. March 3 outside the building in a recycling container. It spread to an exterior wall and damaged portions of a warehouse used to store fabric and cushions for wood glider rockers.
"Fortunately, there were no workers on the site at the time, so no injuries or losses of life are to be reported," Fontaine said. "We were extremely fortunate because the firewalls and fire alarms worked perfectly to stop the spread of the fire and alert the fire department."
No major piece of equipment was damaged and the production line, in a separate part of the building, was spared. Damage was limited to a section of the building devoted to fabric cutting and cushion preparation.
Fontaine said the equipment from the burned section will be relocated to Dutailier's nearby production facilities in St-Hyacinthe or Ste-Anne-de-la-Pérade. He said the effect on customers will be "fairly limited. We have an ample inventory of finished products that are ready to ship and we will be able to resume production in a fairly normal fashion in a few days."
