ROBBINSVILLE, NC - Three workers at Stanley Furniture's Young America plant were injured Monday afternoon when a wood-fired boiler exploded, just one day before the plant was scheduled to close for good.

A report Monday night from WLOS News 13 said the three were burned by the steam when the boiler flashed over. The extent of the injuries in the July 14 blast were unclear, although News 13 did report that one victim had already been released from the hospital Monday night.

In a statement to Furniture Today, Glenn Prillaman, Stanley Furniture president and CEO, “First and foremost our concerns go out to the associates that have been hurt. We are keeping a close eye on what is going on there and are making sure they get the care they need.”

Stanley Furniture announced in April it would shutter its youth furniture plant due to its inability to "achieve an acceptable level of revenue within an adequate time frame to assure sustainable profitability." In a recent interview with the New York Times, Prillaman cited competition from China, particularly for U.S.-sourced raw materials, as a contributing factor to the problem. 

The Young America plant, which had become a symbol of reshoring of U.S. residential furniture manufacturing, won a Wooden Globe award for its use of technology in 2013.